News
WSJ | White House Regulation Shift Is a Political Bet
Republicans and some business groups say Mr. Obama must jettison a host of other proposed regulations to reverse what they argue is an antibusiness perspective.
CNN: Money | Sweeping patent changes poised to become law
Congress on Thursday passed legislation that will reform the U.S. patent system for the first time since the Truman administration.
Econ Comments
Washington Times | GHEI: Pension pitfalls
Lavish retirement benefits create economic crisis for state and local governments.
RCM | Obama, the Veg-O-Matic President. Act Now!
The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: I have 14 months to save my job and I'm willing to spend unlimited amounts of your money to make sure that happens.
NY Times | How to Make Business Want to Invest Again
During the last week, the nation has witnessed much partisan wrangling over the economy. So it might be worth stepping back and assessing what we know and what we don’t. Let’s start with five propositions about which there is little doubt:
Washington Times | WOLF: Obama more telegraph than iPhone
The Democratic governing class, however, is stuck in an era long since cast aside. It stands astride the 21st century bitterly clinging to its monolithic, government-control mindset. Its miscalculation - the epic political miscalculation of our lifetime - is the belief that free Americans who demand bottom-up, personalized phones and individualized music playlists will accept top-down, one-size-fits-all government rule.
Blogs
Cato @ Liberty | Davis-Bacon Rules Damage D.C.
The Washington Post reports on a Labor Department decision that applies pro-union Davis-Bacon rules to the CityCenter development in Washington D.C. The ruling could push up costs on the project by $20 million by forcing firms to pay artificially high wages.
Fox Business | Regulation and the Unseen
I have written several blog posts explaining why Dodd-Frank creates more problems than solutions. But, I was shocked to see my friends at the New York Times are now calling the legislation a jobs program, of all things, because it has created work for accountants and compliance officers.
Marginal Revolution | Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?
The beauty of social insurance is that it is actuarially unsound. Everyone who reaches retirement age is given benefit privileges that far exceed anything he has paid in — exceed his payments by more than ten times (or five times counting employer payments)!
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of Sept 11th
Several key reports will be released this week: Retail Sales, Industrial Production, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Coordination Problem | It's the Investment, Stupid
The economy remains moribund not because consumption spending has failed to recover and not because government spending has failed to increase, but because the true driver of economic growth—private investment—remains deeply depressed.
Café Hayek | Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?
“Social Security is worse than a Ponzi scheme, because it is not voluntary, and everyone suffers, not just Ponzi’s greedy participants.”
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list declines to 986 Institutions
Here is the unofficial problem bank list for Sept 9, 2011.
Café Hayek | Questions About Imports
Proponents of imposing heavier tax burdens on Americans who purchase goods and services from abroad should look at this graph and ponder the following questions:
Reports
Mercatus Center | The Essential Stimulus
The administration promised that ARRA would “create or save” 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, mostly in the private sector. The administration also promised that under ARRA not only would unemployment not increase beyond 8.25 percent, but that it would also drop to 7.25 percent by end of 2010. Unfortunately, the stimulus has failed to live up to the promises.
RCM: Wells Fargo | Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary
While it was a fairly light week for economic data, speeches by President Barack Obama and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke dominated headlines. The president outlined a plan that calls for payroll tax cuts and spending initiatives. Although the proposal could boost growth somewhat, we do not believe it fully addresses the core issues of weak consumer demand and structural unemployment.
