News
Bloomberg | Consumer Comfort in U.S. Climbed to an Eight-Month High
Consumer sentiment last week reached an eight-month high, reflecting broad-based gains that indicated even wealthy Americans were less concerned about tax increases and fiscal policy challenges heading into 2013.
FOX Business | Despite a Rough Recovery, Consumers Still Paying Down Debt
Consumers continued to pay down debt in the third quarter of 2012, but slow job growth and the expiration of a tax cut could mean it will become more difficult to repay loans, the American Bankers Association said on Thursday.
CNN Money | Wall Street's biggest headwind: Washington
Investors are relieved that the fiscal cliff was avoided, thanks to last minute negotiations, but the debt problems facing the United States -- and in turn the stock market -- are far from over.
Bloomberg | Housing Lobby’s Win Costing U.S. $600 Billion: Mortgages
Congressional efforts to reduce the U.S. deficit revived tax breaks for mortgage insurance and extended interest deductions for homeowners that will cost the government $600 billion over five years.
Washington Post | Financial reform battle continues over Dodd-Frank law
The fate of financial reform may be decided in the coming year as congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle attempt to modify the Dodd-Frank Act.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | Dodd-Frank Regulatory Actions to Watch in 2013
Dodd-Frank doesn’t take away the taxpayer safety net and force the market to sink or swim without government guarantees. It doesn’t address the dangerous dependence on taxpayer guarantees in housing finance that was central to the crisis. Dodd-Frank deepens the government’s entanglement with the biggest financial institutions and threatens to shrink the ranks of smaller institutions through regulatory inundation.
Real Clear Markets | More Sensible Regulations Require Predictable Disclosure
The Administration tardily released the Fall 2012 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions on December 21, 2012. The Spring 2012 edition was never released, thus breaking a nearly two-decade practice of agencies telling the public twice a year which regulations are under consideration. The semi-annual publication of agencies' regulatory agendas is not simply good government; it fulfills a legal mandate.
Blogs
Economist | Cuts on the sly
To those on fixed incomes, including many retirees, inflation is the enemy. Workers can generally expect their wages to rise with inflation (if not in one-for-one lockstep). But after retirement income is set, and erodes in real terms as prices increase. Some retirees are protected; their pension benefits increase with inflation each year. That protection may now be vulnerable.
