News
National Journal | Former Top Economic Officials Fret About Asset Bubbles
The stock market is soaring, the housing market is rebounding, and even the job market is showing signs of life (well, mostly). But a number of the country’s former top economic officials worry about potential dangers on the horizon created by the very agency that’s trying to rescue the labor market.
CNN Money | Future of Medicaid and food stamps at stake
More than $350 billion a year. That's how much the federal government spends on the nation's two largest safety net programs, Medicaid and food stamps.
Bloomberg | Recession Replaces Debt as Top EU Worry Amid Joblessness
European leaders are loosening the economic shackles once demanded by Germany as the recession and mounting unemployment in southern Europe shove aside the debt crisis as the euro area’s biggest headache.
WSJ | Americans on the Move Again
Americans have resumed moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South—shaking off the effects of the recession and housing bust, which had made it more difficult to relocate.
CNBC | US Consumers Power Ahead, Despite Headwinds
The U.S. consumer is powering ahead at what could be the best levels since the financial crisis, despite economic headwinds and uncertainty in Washington.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | A free-market approach that works for energy
So how do we get from here to there? Here are three suggestions:
WSJ | Fannie, Freddie and the Government's House of Cards
The nascent housing price recovery is restoring health to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises that contributed so much to the crash of 2008. Both had earnings in 2012 and thus won't need money from the U.S. Treasury to cover operating losses. In the preceding three years they had cost the taxpayers over $180 billion.
Washington Times | Looking for a better way to sell the Keystone pipeline
No basketball coach would direct his players to cover everyone on the opposing team except their leading scorer. That would be a recipe for losing the game, not to mention the coach’s job. Yet virtually all supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada’s oil sands to refineries in the United States are doing exactly that in their promotion of the project.
Blogs
WSJ | Secondary Sources: Economic Problem, Retirement, Keynesian Flaw
A roundup of economic news from around the Web.
WSJ | Mortgage Rates Surpass 6-Month High
Average fixed mortgage rates in the U.S. rose over the past week amid signs of improvement in jobs growth and consumer spending, with 30-year fixed rates reaching the highest level in more than six months, according to mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Health Care
News
Politico | Experts debate all-payer setups vs. Medicare for all
Health care prices are too damn high. That’s the punch line to the provocative Time magazine piece “Bitter Pill” by Steven Brill, who laid out his diagnosis of the problem Wednesday at a Center for American Progress panel.
WSJ | Squeeze Looms for Doctors
U.S. medical schools are expanding to meet an expected need for more doctors due to the federal health law. With at least 12 new schools opening and existing ones growing, enrollment is on track to produce 5,000 more graduates a year by 2019.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Chart of the Week: The States That Have Expanded Medicaid
Expanding Medicaid will be costly for most states. The authors of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Obamacare) threatened to strip all federal funding for states’ Medicaid programs if they refused to expand the entitlement.
FOX Business | Applying For Obamacare is as Difficult as Doing Your Taxes
Premiums for some could double, 20 new taxes are being implemented, you may not even get to see a real doctor the next time you're sick, and if you can get past all that, it's going to take a very long time to apply for coverage.
Politico | Experts debate all-payer setups vs. Medicare for all
Health care prices are too damn high. That’s the punch line to the provocative Time magazine piece “Bitter Pill” by Steven Brill, who laid out his diagnosis of the problem Wednesday at a Center for American Progress panel.
WSJ | Squeeze Looms for Doctors
U.S. medical schools are expanding to meet an expected need for more doctors due to the federal health law. With at least 12 new schools opening and existing ones growing, enrollment is on track to produce 5,000 more graduates a year by 2019.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Chart of the Week: The States That Have Expanded Medicaid
Expanding Medicaid will be costly for most states. The authors of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Obamacare) threatened to strip all federal funding for states’ Medicaid programs if they refused to expand the entitlement.
FOX Business | Applying For Obamacare is as Difficult as Doing Your Taxes
Premiums for some could double, 20 new taxes are being implemented, you may not even get to see a real doctor the next time you're sick, and if you can get past all that, it's going to take a very long time to apply for coverage.
Monetary
News
FOX Business | Wholesale Inflation Rises 0.7% in February
U.S. producer prices months in February rose by the most in five as gasoline prices spiked, but there was little sign of a broader increase in inflation pressures.
Market Watch | Fed moves release time of future policy statements
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will shift the release time of the monetary policy statements to 2 p.m. Eastern. In the past, the central bank released the statements at 2:15 p.m.
FOX Business | Regulators Rule Big Banks Don't Have to Hold Break-Up Votes
U.S. regulators have agreed with four of the country's biggest banks that they will not have to hold shareholder votes at upcoming annual meetings over whether the institutions are too big.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | Dodd-Frank: 'Financial Stability' On the Backs of Taxpayers
March 11 marked the start of mandatory central clearing for certain kinds of over-the-counter derivatives called swaps. The central clearing requirement, a major component of Dodd-Frank, is purportedly one of the pillars upon which the future stability of our financial system rests. That pillar, however, is not as sturdy as it looks, particularly because regulators-blinded by central-clearing-love-are leaning on it.
Blogs
WSJ | ECB Doubles Down on Austerity
The European Central Bank is doubling down on its insistence that fiscal austerity is the best way to achieve economic growth in the long term.
FOX Business | Wholesale Inflation Rises 0.7% in February
U.S. producer prices months in February rose by the most in five as gasoline prices spiked, but there was little sign of a broader increase in inflation pressures.
Market Watch | Fed moves release time of future policy statements
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will shift the release time of the monetary policy statements to 2 p.m. Eastern. In the past, the central bank released the statements at 2:15 p.m.
FOX Business | Regulators Rule Big Banks Don't Have to Hold Break-Up Votes
U.S. regulators have agreed with four of the country's biggest banks that they will not have to hold shareholder votes at upcoming annual meetings over whether the institutions are too big.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | Dodd-Frank: 'Financial Stability' On the Backs of Taxpayers
March 11 marked the start of mandatory central clearing for certain kinds of over-the-counter derivatives called swaps. The central clearing requirement, a major component of Dodd-Frank, is purportedly one of the pillars upon which the future stability of our financial system rests. That pillar, however, is not as sturdy as it looks, particularly because regulators-blinded by central-clearing-love-are leaning on it.
Blogs
WSJ | ECB Doubles Down on Austerity
The European Central Bank is doubling down on its insistence that fiscal austerity is the best way to achieve economic growth in the long term.
Taxes
News
Washington Times | Issue of carbon tax rears up once again
Business leaders joined a group of House Republicans on Wednesday to denounce a tax on carbon emissions — a concept that they acknowledge has virtually no chance of being translated into law anytime soon.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Senate Democrats Want Unnecessary $1.5 Trillion Tax Increase
It has been nearly four years since the last time the Senate passed a budget. In that time, it hasn’t as much as proposed a budget. That at long last changed yesterday when Senate Budget chairwoman Patty Murray (D–WA) released a budget plan for next year.
Washington Times | Issue of carbon tax rears up once again
Business leaders joined a group of House Republicans on Wednesday to denounce a tax on carbon emissions — a concept that they acknowledge has virtually no chance of being translated into law anytime soon.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Senate Democrats Want Unnecessary $1.5 Trillion Tax Increase
It has been nearly four years since the last time the Senate passed a budget. In that time, it hasn’t as much as proposed a budget. That at long last changed yesterday when Senate Budget chairwoman Patty Murray (D–WA) released a budget plan for next year.
Employment
News
CNN Money | Jobless claims fall again as labor market improves
The job market continued to improve last week, as fewer Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Why Companies Aren't Getting the Employees They Need
Even with unemployment hovering around 9%, companies are grousing that they can't find skilled workers, and filling a job can take months of hunting.
CNN Money | Jobless claims fall again as labor market improves
The job market continued to improve last week, as fewer Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Why Companies Aren't Getting the Employees They Need
Even with unemployment hovering around 9%, companies are grousing that they can't find skilled workers, and filling a job can take months of hunting.
Budget
News
Politico | Patty Murray plan doesn't balance budget
Sen. Patty Murray’s new budget plan would cut annual deficits but still leaves the country with a $566 billion shortfall after 10 years, as Senate Democrats and House Republicans continue to debate whether balancing the budget in a decade is the best approach to bolster the tepid economy.
CNN Money | What's in the Democrats' budget
The talk in Washington on Tuesday was all about "no new taxes, ax spending, kill deficits and watch the economy grow."
Market Watch | Boehner calls meeting with Obama a 'good start'
House Republican leader John Boehner said Wednesday there was a good tone in a closed-door meeting between House Republicans and President Barack Obama and it was a "good start" in an effort to find common ground.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Daily Caller | What to cut next
For supporters of limited government, there is some good news coming from Washington. On entitlement spending, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new spending plan would reform Medicare and Medicaid, repeal Obamacare, and balance the budget over 10 years.
WSJ | Escape From Spending Hell
So it looks like we've all been sentenced to spending at least two more years in budget hell with Barack Obama. Under the rules of budget hell set the past four years by the prince of Pennsylvania Avenue, you're not allowed to do anything real about federal spending. You can only fight over federal spending. Forever.
CRS | The Budget Control Act, Sequestration, and the Foreign Affairs Budget: Background and Possible Impacts
According to a February 22, 2013, Pew Research Center survey, Americans surveyed support cuts in foreign aid spending more than any other government activity mentioned. Although still not the majority, 48% of those polled prefer a decrease in foreign aid, while 49% prefer it remains at the current level or is increased.
Politico | Patty Murray plan doesn't balance budget
Sen. Patty Murray’s new budget plan would cut annual deficits but still leaves the country with a $566 billion shortfall after 10 years, as Senate Democrats and House Republicans continue to debate whether balancing the budget in a decade is the best approach to bolster the tepid economy.
CNN Money | What's in the Democrats' budget
The talk in Washington on Tuesday was all about "no new taxes, ax spending, kill deficits and watch the economy grow."
Market Watch | Boehner calls meeting with Obama a 'good start'
House Republican leader John Boehner said Wednesday there was a good tone in a closed-door meeting between House Republicans and President Barack Obama and it was a "good start" in an effort to find common ground.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Daily Caller | What to cut next
For supporters of limited government, there is some good news coming from Washington. On entitlement spending, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new spending plan would reform Medicare and Medicaid, repeal Obamacare, and balance the budget over 10 years.
WSJ | Escape From Spending Hell
So it looks like we've all been sentenced to spending at least two more years in budget hell with Barack Obama. Under the rules of budget hell set the past four years by the prince of Pennsylvania Avenue, you're not allowed to do anything real about federal spending. You can only fight over federal spending. Forever.
CRS | The Budget Control Act, Sequestration, and the Foreign Affairs Budget: Background and Possible Impacts
According to a February 22, 2013, Pew Research Center survey, Americans surveyed support cuts in foreign aid spending more than any other government activity mentioned. Although still not the majority, 48% of those polled prefer a decrease in foreign aid, while 49% prefer it remains at the current level or is increased.
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