News
National Journal | Senate Oil Subsidy Vote Will Have to Wait
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will likely punt to at least next week a politically charged vote on repealing oil and gas subsidies for the country’s biggest producers. Reid said he planned to make an announcement Wednesday on the status of the bill.
Politico | Free-trade pacts caught in crossfire
After years of wrangling, labor and business groups are gearing up for an epic showdown over free trade this summer as President Obama pushes Congress to approve pacts with Panama, South Korea and Columbia.
CNN: Money | Why refining more gas won't bring prices down
At first glance, it seems like a great time to buy a refinery. The price of gas is hovering around $4 and will likely stay high heading into the summer months. But a closer look shows refiners are actually trapped between two sets of players in the oil industry -- providers who deliver crude oil to them for refining, and customers who buy their finished products.
National Journal | Gas Prices: What Moves the Needle?
So what would these proposals actually do for gas prices? National Journal takes a look at how increased offshore drilling, stricter fuel economy standards, eliminating tax breaks, and clean energy investments would ease pain at the pump, if at all.
Politico | Osama bin Laden news could pivot economy
Economists and money managers see bin Laden's death as a potential psychological pivot point away from the "Lost Decade" of low confidence and recession ushered in by the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.
Reuters | Commerce Secretary Locke hits China over investment barriers
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke accused Beijing on Wednesday of discouraging foreign investment to protect its own companies and promised to push against those barriers if confirmed as the next ambassador to China.
Econ Comments
Minyanville | Investors Fear Economic Slowdown, Inflation
Despite a lower unemployment rate, the stock charts show unprecedented confusion -- just one of 18 worries affecting world markets this week.
Cato Institute | Eliminating Oil Subsidies: Two Cheers for President Obama
Although the president hopes to eliminate eight specific tax breaks — which cost the Treasury $43.6 billion over 10 years — only three, accounting for $31.9 billion of that total, are particularly important. Conservatives have no business defending any of them.
WSJ | Canada Makes a Right Turn
The country skipped the housing bust and its budget is headed toward balance. Voters liked it.
Blogs
The Economist: Free exchange | Rich and poor, growing apart
THINK income inequality growth is primarily an American phenomenon? Think again.
Reason Foundation | “No Nation Was Ever Ruined By Trade”
A new study, Trade and Unemployment: What Do the Data Say?, by three European economists published in the journal, European Economic Review in March, forthrightly asks the question: Does exposure to international trade create or destroy jobs? Their answer strongly backs the observation made by Franklin more than 230 years ago. “A 10 percent increase in total trade openness reduces aggregate unemployment by about three quarters of one percentage point,” they conclude. To be a bit more precise, they find, “A 10 percentage point increase lowers the equilibrium rate of unemployment by about 0.76 percentage points.” Trade creates jobs.
Neighborhood Effects | State and Local Economic Development Programs
It is true, of course, that California’s business climate is abysmal. According to Sorens and Ruger, California is number 44 in terms of fiscal freedom (with 50 being the least-free), and 46 in terms of regulatory freedom. Other indices come to the same conclusion. Kail Padgitt of the Tax Foundation, for example, evaluated states based on their business tax climate and California came in at #49.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Personal Bankruptcy Filings Moderate
Personal bankruptcy filings dropped last month, as the surge of bankruptcies spurred by the economic downturn continued to moderate.
Reports
CRS | Clean Energy Standard: Potential Qualifying Energy Sources
A clean energy standard (CES) has been identified as one possible legislative option to encourage a more diverse domestic electricity portfolio. A CES could require certain electricity providers to obtain a portion of their electricity from qualifying clean energy sources. A CES is broader than a renewable energy standard (RES), including "clean" energy sources along with renewable energy sources.
NBER | Market-specific and Currency-specific Risk During the Global Financial Crisis:
This paper explores how international money markets reflected credit and liquidity risks during the global financial crisis. After matching the currency denomination, we investigate how the Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (TIBOR) was synchronized with the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) denominated in the US dollar and the Japanese yen. Regardless of the currency denomination, TIBOR was highly synchronized with LIBOR in tranquil periods. However, the interbank rates showed substantial deviations in turbulent periods.
