News
CNN Money | Americans spent more on gas, less at the mall
Americans spent more at the gas pump and less at department stores in February, but overall, stronger retail sales data show the U.S. consumer is holding up.
CNN Money | European factory output falls sharply
Industrial production in Europe sank faster than expected in January, raising the risk that a long-awaited return to growth will be further delayed.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Drill, Barack, Drill
President Obama does a neat John D. Rockefeller imitation these days, taking credit for soaring domestic oil and gas production as if he planned it that way. Not quite. As a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports shows, "All of the increased [oil] production from 2007 to 2012 took place on non-federal lands."
Market Watch | Economy should regain speed, top forecaster says
The U.S. economy has hit some potholes, but should regain its momentum in the second half of the year, says J.P. Morgan chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli, the winner of the MarketWatch’s Forecaster of the Month award for February.
WSJ | Made in America, and Everywhere Else
President Obama has entered his second term calling for a revival of U.S. manufacturing. He is championing an "Advanced Manufacturing Technologies" initiative intended to spur the development and commercial deployment of American-made high-tech goods.
Mercatus | Farm Subsidies Must Die
On January 2, President Barack Obama signed a bill designed to avert the fiscal cliff. At the same time, to slightly less fanfare, he averted the “milk cliff.” By extending the 2008 farm bill another nine months, he prevented the automatic revival of a 1949 law requiring the federal government to buy dairy products under certain circumstances, effectively setting a floor for the price of milk. While the actual fate of milk prices was far from clear, the milk cliff provided cover to continue the practices of subsidizing wealthy farmers, to the detriment of just about everyone else.
Blogs
CATO | Obama’s Trade Policy Should Be Judged on Its Accomplishments, Not Its Promise
There has been more buzz about the prospects for trade liberalization this year than at any time since the first term of the second president Bush. It appears that some may be mistaking the chatter for actual accomplishment.
Calculated Risk | MBA: Mortgage Applications decrease, Mortgage Rates highest since August 2012
The Refinance Index decreased 5 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Health Care
News
CNN Money | Republicans revive Medicare subsidy plan
How does Rep. Paul Ryan want to save Medicare? Offer seniors subsidies to cover their premiums.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: Obamacare’s Medicaid Trap
While Members of Congress are arguing about defunding parts of Obamacare, the rubber is meeting the road in the states. Governors and state legislatures are sweating decisions about setting up government health care exchanges and expanding the Medicaid program.
CNN Money | Republicans revive Medicare subsidy plan
How does Rep. Paul Ryan want to save Medicare? Offer seniors subsidies to cover their premiums.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: Obamacare’s Medicaid Trap
While Members of Congress are arguing about defunding parts of Obamacare, the rubber is meeting the road in the states. Governors and state legislatures are sweating decisions about setting up government health care exchanges and expanding the Medicaid program.
Monetary
News
FOX Business | Import Prices Increase More Than Expected in February
U.S. import prices rose more than expected in February, driven by the biggest increase in fuel prices since August, a U.S. Labor Department report showed on Wednesday.
Bloomberg | Fed’s Bank Stress Tests Make Dubious Assumptions
The results of the Federal Reserve’s 2013 stress tests are promising, showing that 17 of the 18 largest U.S.-bank holding companies have a resilient base of capital and could withstand three different severe recession scenarios.
Econ Comments & Analysis
NBER | Hot Tip: Nominal Exchange Rates and Inflation Indexed Bond Yields
This paper derives a structural relationship between the nominal exchange rate, national price levels, and observed yields on long maturity inflation - indexed bonds.
Washington Times | Behind the Bernanke curtain
The spooks don’t preside over the most secretive agency of the government. It’s no place for spies or their spymasters, so it isn’t the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency or even the Office of National Intelligence. The place where the deepest secrets are kept is where the gnomes of the central banks work.
WSJ | Easing the Angst About Fed Easing
Last month, a flurry of ill-informed speculation swept through the markets: TheFederal Reserve might start backing away from its program of large-scale asset purchases ("quantitative easing"), or maybe even begin to raise the federal funds rate, before the end of the year. The talk was fueled by the release, on Feb. 20, of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's January meeting.
Blogs
Economist | Commodity prices in the (very) long run
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, rapid worldwide population growth and soaring commodity prices gave rise to fears that humans were outgrowing their planet's resource capacity.
FOX Business | Import Prices Increase More Than Expected in February
U.S. import prices rose more than expected in February, driven by the biggest increase in fuel prices since August, a U.S. Labor Department report showed on Wednesday.
Bloomberg | Fed’s Bank Stress Tests Make Dubious Assumptions
The results of the Federal Reserve’s 2013 stress tests are promising, showing that 17 of the 18 largest U.S.-bank holding companies have a resilient base of capital and could withstand three different severe recession scenarios.
Econ Comments & Analysis
NBER | Hot Tip: Nominal Exchange Rates and Inflation Indexed Bond Yields
This paper derives a structural relationship between the nominal exchange rate, national price levels, and observed yields on long maturity inflation - indexed bonds.
Washington Times | Behind the Bernanke curtain
The spooks don’t preside over the most secretive agency of the government. It’s no place for spies or their spymasters, so it isn’t the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency or even the Office of National Intelligence. The place where the deepest secrets are kept is where the gnomes of the central banks work.
WSJ | Easing the Angst About Fed Easing
Last month, a flurry of ill-informed speculation swept through the markets: TheFederal Reserve might start backing away from its program of large-scale asset purchases ("quantitative easing"), or maybe even begin to raise the federal funds rate, before the end of the year. The talk was fueled by the release, on Feb. 20, of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's January meeting.
Blogs
Economist | Commodity prices in the (very) long run
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, rapid worldwide population growth and soaring commodity prices gave rise to fears that humans were outgrowing their planet's resource capacity.
Taxes
Econ Comments & Analysis
NY Times | Blessings of Low Taxes Remain Unproved
The proposition that low tax rates produce higher economic growth has been a central plank of the Republican platform since I was a teenager.
NY Times | Blessings of Low Taxes Remain Unproved
The proposition that low tax rates produce higher economic growth has been a central plank of the Republican platform since I was a teenager.
Employment
News
Politico | Hundreds of White House budget office employees furloughed
An administration official tells POLITICO the agency issued furlough notices last Thursday to 480 employees. Each will be required to take 10 days off without pay between April 21 and September 7 -- one per pay period, the official said.
CNN Money | Paul Ryan wants to cut more federal workers
Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan wants to cut the federal government workforce by 10% -- some 210,000 jobs -- through a two-year hiring freeze.
Bloomberg | Workweek Tying Longest Since WWII Spurs Hiring at U.S. Factories
The last time U.S. factory workers put in longer weeks than they averaged in February, Rosie the Riveter was on the assembly line and American GIs were fighting Nazis in Europe.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | Jobless numbers hide the reality
While the Dow Jones industrial average merrily soared to new highs on Wall Street, it was a much more sobering and even depressing story on Main Street America.
Politico | Hundreds of White House budget office employees furloughed
An administration official tells POLITICO the agency issued furlough notices last Thursday to 480 employees. Each will be required to take 10 days off without pay between April 21 and September 7 -- one per pay period, the official said.
CNN Money | Paul Ryan wants to cut more federal workers
Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan wants to cut the federal government workforce by 10% -- some 210,000 jobs -- through a two-year hiring freeze.
Bloomberg | Workweek Tying Longest Since WWII Spurs Hiring at U.S. Factories
The last time U.S. factory workers put in longer weeks than they averaged in February, Rosie the Riveter was on the assembly line and American GIs were fighting Nazis in Europe.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | Jobless numbers hide the reality
While the Dow Jones industrial average merrily soared to new highs on Wall Street, it was a much more sobering and even depressing story on Main Street America.
Budget
News
Roll Call | 10 Things to Know About the Ryan Budget
Everything you need to know about House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan’s budget blueprint, from its prospects in the Senate to which White House proposals the Wisconsin Republican suggests keeping in place. Spoiler alert: “Obamacare” wouldn’t be completely discarded.
Bloomberg | Grand Bargain Taxes, Entitlements Cuts Await Deal Makers
Some of the elements of a budgetary “grand bargain” will be on the table today. Merging them is the biggest political challenge in the U.S. Capitol.
Roll Call | Debt Ceiling Looms Beyond Spending Fight
Conservatives are privately debating how much space to give House leaders to follow through on promises made at their Williamsburg, Va., retreat in January, with a wait-and-see approach embraced by key veterans and a smaller movement of mostly newer lawmakers wanting to push leadership harder.
Washington Times | Obama: My goal isn’t to balance budget
President Obama said during Tuesday comments on the federal budget that his goal was to fix the economy — not balance revenues with expenditures.
CNBC | US Senate Democrats' Budget Seeks $1.85 Trillion in Savings: Source
Democrats on Wednesday will unveil a U.S. budget blueprint that attempts to slice federal deficits by $1.85 trillion over 10 years through an equal mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the rich, according to a Democratic source.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | A Ryan Reboot
The political class seems to be scandalized that Paul Ryan had the cheek Tuesday to propose another reform budget. Doesn't the House Budget Chairman understand that the 2012 election settled every political question in President Obama's favor?
Bloomberg | DeLong Says Not Time to Cut U.S. Budget With Free Lunch
Just as lawmakers force as much as $85 billion of budget cuts on the federal government, economists Bradford DeLong and Lawrence Summers have a message for Washington: Now is the perfect time to spend more, not less.
Real Clear Markets | There's Nothing 'Limited' About Ryan's Balanced Budget
In a Republican Party that seemingly no longer believes or understands its limited government rhetoric, Rep. Paul Ryan has long been an outlier. Much like his late mentor in Jack Kemp, Ryan has always given the impression that he supports light taxation, limited government and stable money values precisely because they would do the most to lift the economic chances of those least well to do.
Blogs
CATO | Everything You Need to Know About the Ryan Budget
Sigh. Even when they’re sort of doing the right thing, Republicans are incapable of using the right argument.
Roll Call | 10 Things to Know About the Ryan Budget
Everything you need to know about House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan’s budget blueprint, from its prospects in the Senate to which White House proposals the Wisconsin Republican suggests keeping in place. Spoiler alert: “Obamacare” wouldn’t be completely discarded.
Bloomberg | Grand Bargain Taxes, Entitlements Cuts Await Deal Makers
Some of the elements of a budgetary “grand bargain” will be on the table today. Merging them is the biggest political challenge in the U.S. Capitol.
Roll Call | Debt Ceiling Looms Beyond Spending Fight
Conservatives are privately debating how much space to give House leaders to follow through on promises made at their Williamsburg, Va., retreat in January, with a wait-and-see approach embraced by key veterans and a smaller movement of mostly newer lawmakers wanting to push leadership harder.
Washington Times | Obama: My goal isn’t to balance budget
President Obama said during Tuesday comments on the federal budget that his goal was to fix the economy — not balance revenues with expenditures.
CNBC | US Senate Democrats' Budget Seeks $1.85 Trillion in Savings: Source
Democrats on Wednesday will unveil a U.S. budget blueprint that attempts to slice federal deficits by $1.85 trillion over 10 years through an equal mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the rich, according to a Democratic source.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | A Ryan Reboot
The political class seems to be scandalized that Paul Ryan had the cheek Tuesday to propose another reform budget. Doesn't the House Budget Chairman understand that the 2012 election settled every political question in President Obama's favor?
Bloomberg | DeLong Says Not Time to Cut U.S. Budget With Free Lunch
Just as lawmakers force as much as $85 billion of budget cuts on the federal government, economists Bradford DeLong and Lawrence Summers have a message for Washington: Now is the perfect time to spend more, not less.
Real Clear Markets | There's Nothing 'Limited' About Ryan's Balanced Budget
In a Republican Party that seemingly no longer believes or understands its limited government rhetoric, Rep. Paul Ryan has long been an outlier. Much like his late mentor in Jack Kemp, Ryan has always given the impression that he supports light taxation, limited government and stable money values precisely because they would do the most to lift the economic chances of those least well to do.
Blogs
CATO | Everything You Need to Know About the Ryan Budget
Sigh. Even when they’re sort of doing the right thing, Republicans are incapable of using the right argument.
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