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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Cyprus Capital Controls First in EU Could Last Years
Cyprus is on the verge of an unprecedented financial experiment: imposing controls on money transfers in an economy that doesn’t have its own currency.
National Journal | Big Labor and Big Business Have One Big Issue: Immigration Reform
Immigration reform has become the No. 1 policy priority at the AFL-CIO, a remarkable shift for the labor group that has in the past spent more effort trying to pass a health care law or destroying a proposal to privatize Social Security.
Fox Business | New Foreclosures Fall to Lowest Level Since Crisis
The number of new U.S. foreclosures initiated in the fourth quarter of 2012 fell to the lowest level since officials began tracking them during the financial crisis, a government report said on Wednesday.
Bloomberg | Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Decline 0.4%
The index of pending home sales fell 0.4 percent to 104.8, the second-highest level since April 2010, after a revised 3.8 percent increase the prior month.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Politico | Spectrum auction could rev up economic engine
The FCC can build on the proven economic engine of wireless networks and address the current spectrum shortage by identifying additional spectrum that can be allocated and auctioned to wireless providers for their exclusive use to serve America’s mobile consumers.
Politico | Biofuels advance economy, society
We must not forget that most successful industries and innovations do not mature overnight.
CNN: Money | State governments face one of Corporate America's biggest problems: extra cash
States expect modest budget surpluses this year, and just like U.S. companies, they're not exactly loosening their purse strings.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | The biggest problem
Central bankers like to say that monetary policy isn't a panacea, and they're right. But monetary policy can solve the nominal problem. And because the severity of so many other problems is contingent on the severity of the nominal problem, bad monetary policy can make it difficult to get anything else right.

Health Care

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Real Clear Politics | Study: Health Law to Raise Claims Cost 32 Percent
The study says claims costs will go up largely because sicker people will join the insurance pool. That's because the law forbids insurers from turning down those with pre-existing medical problems, effective Jan. 1.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNBC | Has Wealth Inequality in US Sparked Fed's Interest?
Some on the FOMC, they said, assert that inequality "undermines the ability of the economy to grow sustainably and efficiently" and could lower the long-term growth rate.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
New York Sun | A Run on the Fed?
It may not be a run on the Fed — not by a long shot — but it comes as we’re starting to see the fraying of the concept of trust that undergirds any system of money and credit.
RCM | Gary Shilling Is Confused: There's No Global 'Deflation'
In short, what we and the rest of the world are experiencing is the opposite of deflation whereby paper around the world is being devalued on the way to cautious investment and slow growth. Yes, inflation is very deflating.

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
CNN: Money | IRS warns of 'dirty dozen' tax scams
Taxpayers should be on alert for identity thieves, e-mails falsely claiming to be from the IRS and shady tax preparers this year, the IRS warns.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
RCM | The Quickest Way To Wreck Corporate Tax Reform
If the overall reform package is revenue-neutral and old capital comes out ahead, then new investments have to pick up the slack. For new investments, the loss from the depreciation slow-down must outweigh the benefits of the rate cut, amplifying the tax penalty.
Forbes | Romney's 47% Has a Venerable Legacy in the 1913 Origins of the Income Tax
That was the consensus that gave us the income tax. The rich would pay it, nobody else would, and everyone else’s taxes would be cut and minimized.
Washington Times | TAUBE: Why a carbon tax is wrong for the right
It goes without saying the Republicans have to take a free-market-oriented position on the environment to win over some voters. It would also be an egregious political error, however, to ever include support for a carbon tax.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Cato Institute | Targeting Multinationals, the OECD Launches New Scheme to Boost the Tax Burden on Business
I’ve been very critical of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Most recently, I criticized the Paris-based bureaucracy for making the rather remarkable assertion that a value-added tax would boost growth and employment.

Budget

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Washington Times | LAMBRO: Short-term budget bedevils second-term Obama
The federal budget deficit will be nearly $1 trillion this year, our national debt is headed toward $17 trillion, Congress‘ approval polls are a dismal 13 percent, and our lawmakers are on a two-week spring break.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Econlog | Tax Hikes, then Spending Cuts: Not What "Starve the Beast" Predicted
It's all common sense, of course: Less money coming in probably means less money going out. But as I've said before, common sense is a bad way to learn astronomy so maybe it's a bad way to learn economics.
Market Watch | U.S. debt held by foreigners ‘manageable,’ economist says
New figures out Tuesday show the net debt held by foreigners is “manageable” and well below levels that have triggered issues in other countries, an economist says after seeing fresh data.
CBO | How Different Future Interest Rates Would Affect Budget Deficits
The causes of higher interest rates would also affect the conduct of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Changes in both interest rates and the magnitude of the Federal Reserve’s purchases and sales of securities would affect remittances by the Federal Reserve to the Treasury.

Employment

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Temp Hiring Tumbling in Euro Zone
A pickup in temporary hiring through recruitment consultants can be an early sign of an economic rebound on the horizon.