News
AOL Energy | Everyone Knows Its Price, But How Much do You Really Know About Gasoline?
Your favorite Exxon station is very likely not owned or operated by Exxon and the same is true for the rest of the major oil companies.
Bloomberg | Consumer Confidence in U.S. Falls to Lowest Level Since 2011
Confidence among U.S. consumers declined more than forecast in January, reaching the lowest level in more than a year as higher payroll taxes took a bigger bite out of Americans’ paychecks.
Washington Times | Study: Incomes in open-shop states higher, after adjusting for living costs
Claims by union proponents that union-shop states beget higher incomes forget one little detail: the cost of living.
Washington Post | Housing emerges as economic bright spot after years in the dark
The nation’s housing market is surging again after years of historic declines, and the unique forces powering its return could last well into 2013.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | Obama’s America looks a lot like the EU
Almost a decade ago, Europeans and many progressive Americans were lamenting how the United States was going to miss out on the 21st-century paradigm symbolized by the robust European Union. Neanderthal Americans were importing ever more oil while waging a costly “war on terror” and fighting conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our budget deficit in 2003 hit $374 billion.
Washington Times | The pipeline to change the direction of the economy
With the swift approval of one project that science has proved time and time again to be safe, our country has the opportunity to put more than 20,000 unemployed Americans back to work, pour hundreds of millions of dollars into our economy annually, and safely transport 830,000 barrels of North American oil daily from Alberta, Canada, through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska to refineries located on the Gulf Coast.
Gallup | Healthcare Costs, Taxes Worry U.S. Small Businesses Most
More than half of U.S. small-business owners say healthcare costs (54%) and taxes on small businesses (53%) are hurting their operating environment "a lot," making these the top two concerns among eight issues tested in a January Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business survey.
Mercatus | More Government Spending Won't Reduce Poverty
Despite unprecedented levels of government spending to help low-income Americans, a record 46 million people in the United States are living in poverty. In 2011, two thirds of the working-age poor were unemployed for the entire year.
NBER | When Is There a Strong Transfer Risk from the Sovereigns to the Corporates? Property Rights Gaps and CDS Spreads
When a sovereign faces the risk of debt default, it may be tempted to expropriate the private sector. This may be one reason for why international investment in private companies has to take into account the sovereign risk.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Income Inequality: Fretting over Success
World elites are worried about something that, in and of itself, is not a problem: income inequality.
WSJ | Companies Ignored Cliff Chatter, but Taxes, Spending Cuts Will Have Real Bite
Monday’s U.S. durable-goods report suggests that — despite all the chatter about uncertainty and the fiscal cliff — business executives ignored their misgivings about Washington and went ahead with capital-expenditure plans.
WSJ | U.S. Retail Sales Growth Expected to Pull Back in 2013
U.S. retail sales are expected to rise 3.4% this year, the slowest rate since 2010, as consumers lower spending because of a tax bite to their paychecks and bickering among policymakers over fiscal matters, according to the industry’s biggest trade group.
Heritage Foundation | It’s Time to Stop Picking Winners and Losers in the Energy Industry
Representative Mike Pompeo (R–KS) hopes his new bill calling for the repeal of all energy tax credits on both conventional and renewable energy sources will level the playing field for energy producers and consumers and prevent the government from picking “winners and losers.”
Library of Economics | Boettke on Living Economics
I enjoyed the latest Econtalk interview, the one with Peter Boettke. They're discussing Boettke's latest book, Living Economics.
