News
Bloomberg | Bank of America Finds Profit in Foreign Tax Credit Moves
What the bank calls “restructuring” of its non-U.S. operations yielded $1.7 billion in foreign tax credits, or 41 percent of the $4.2 billion the company reported in 2012 earnings, according to securities documents including the form 10-K it filed Feb. 28.
CNN Money | U.S. manufacturing growth slows in March
U.S. manufacturing activity continued to expand in March, but the rate of growth slowed, according to a report released Monday.
Bloomberg | U.S. Factories’ February Orders Rise on Car, Plane Demand
Orders placed with U.S. factories increased in February, boosted by a pickup in demand for motor vehicles and commercial aircraft.
WSJ | U.S. Factories Continue Uneven Growth
The manufacturing sector continued its fragmented growth in February as the volatile defense and aerospace industries drove an overall gain despite slowdowns or weak improvements in several other categories.
Bloomberg | U.S. Credit Jobs Rise Along with Borrowing: EcoPulse
Credit-market borrowing in all domestic nonfinancial sectors grew at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of $2.5 trillion in the three months ended Dec. 31, 2012, the biggest rise in five years, according to data in the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds Report.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Wind-Power Subsidies? No Thanks.
The sequester has led to dire warnings from many camps, including advocates of clean energy, who argue that Washington's modest cuts could derail America's green future. But from my vantage as a CEO in the wind-power business, the sequester offers Washington a rare opportunity to roll back misguided subsidies and maybe help reverse wind power's stalling momentum.
Mercatus | Participation in Major Antipoverty Programs Since the Financial Crisis
The United States officially exited recession in June 2009, but spending on and participation in programs designed to help the nation’s poorest families continues to swell.
Blogs
Economist | Too thin a cushion
Americans probably aren’t saving enough. Savings come in handy in many circumstances: when buying a home, paying for a child’s education, retiring, or in cases of unexpected need. Yet despite aging populations and rising educational costs, America's savings rate has been falling.
Library of Economics | Crazy Equilibria: From Democracy to Anarcho-Capitalism
Imagine advocating democracy a thousand years ago. You sketch your basic idea: "Every few years we'll have a free election. Anyone who wants power can run for office, every adult gets a vote, and whoever gets the most votes runs the government until the next election." How would your contemporaries react?
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Health Care
News
FOX Business | U.S. to Raise Medicare Advantage Payment Rate
In a reversal that followed intense lobbying from the health insurance industry and members of Congress, the U.S. government said it will increase the payment rate for health insurers that offer coverage through the popular Medicare Advantage program.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The Obamacare Story Starts To Unravel
Government-regulated healthcare doesn't come cheap. The nonpartisan Society of Actuaries, a professional organization serving 22,000 actuaries, concludes in a new report that the cost of long-run claims will increase by 32 percent by 2017 in the individual market when the Affordable Care Act is fully phased in.
FOX Business | U.S. to Raise Medicare Advantage Payment Rate
In a reversal that followed intense lobbying from the health insurance industry and members of Congress, the U.S. government said it will increase the payment rate for health insurers that offer coverage through the popular Medicare Advantage program.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The Obamacare Story Starts To Unravel
Government-regulated healthcare doesn't come cheap. The nonpartisan Society of Actuaries, a professional organization serving 22,000 actuaries, concludes in a new report that the cost of long-run claims will increase by 32 percent by 2017 in the individual market when the Affordable Care Act is fully phased in.
Monetary
News
CNN Money | Bond bubble may deflate slowly
While 90% of the nearly 30 investment strategists and money managers surveyed by CNNMoney expect long-term rates will rise throughout 2013, their year-end target on the 10-year Treasury yield is just 2.14%. That's only a little more than a quarter of a percentage point higher than where rates are now and also not that much higher than last year's record low of 1.4%.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | An Introduction to U.S. Monetary Policy
In the text that follows, I hope to demystify many of these issues in monetary economics and monetary policy. Understanding what the Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”) does today and how it attempts to achieve macroeconomic policy goals requires some knowledge of where the Fed came from, what tools it has at its disposal, and what various objectives it might be trying to accomplish.
WSJ | Regulators Let Big Banks Look Safer Than They Are
The recent Senate report on the J.P. Morgan Chase "London Whale" trading debacle revealed emails, telephone conversations and other evidence of how Chase managers manipulated their internal risk models to boost the bank's regulatory capital ratios.
National Journal | Why the Euro is Doomed
The euro crisis is entering its fourth year, and, sorry world, this won't be its last. Now, its long periods of boredom have gotten a bit longer, and its moments of sheer financial terror a bit less terrifying ever since the European Central Bank (ECB) promised to do "whatever it takes" to save the common currency. But, as Cyprus and Slovenia show, the battle for the euro isn't over yet. Not even close.
Blogs
WSJ | Central Banks May Not Need Large Foreign-Currency Reserves
Since 2008, central banks from China to Japan to Switzerland have squirreled away money and engineered an unprecedented expansion in their foreign-currency reserve holdings, typically with the goal of trying to manage their exchange rates.
CNN Money | Bond bubble may deflate slowly
While 90% of the nearly 30 investment strategists and money managers surveyed by CNNMoney expect long-term rates will rise throughout 2013, their year-end target on the 10-year Treasury yield is just 2.14%. That's only a little more than a quarter of a percentage point higher than where rates are now and also not that much higher than last year's record low of 1.4%.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | An Introduction to U.S. Monetary Policy
In the text that follows, I hope to demystify many of these issues in monetary economics and monetary policy. Understanding what the Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”) does today and how it attempts to achieve macroeconomic policy goals requires some knowledge of where the Fed came from, what tools it has at its disposal, and what various objectives it might be trying to accomplish.
WSJ | Regulators Let Big Banks Look Safer Than They Are
The recent Senate report on the J.P. Morgan Chase "London Whale" trading debacle revealed emails, telephone conversations and other evidence of how Chase managers manipulated their internal risk models to boost the bank's regulatory capital ratios.
National Journal | Why the Euro is Doomed
The euro crisis is entering its fourth year, and, sorry world, this won't be its last. Now, its long periods of boredom have gotten a bit longer, and its moments of sheer financial terror a bit less terrifying ever since the European Central Bank (ECB) promised to do "whatever it takes" to save the common currency. But, as Cyprus and Slovenia show, the battle for the euro isn't over yet. Not even close.
Blogs
WSJ | Central Banks May Not Need Large Foreign-Currency Reserves
Since 2008, central banks from China to Japan to Switzerland have squirreled away money and engineered an unprecedented expansion in their foreign-currency reserve holdings, typically with the goal of trying to manage their exchange rates.
Taxes
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Corporate chiefs turn up pressure for tax reform
Chief executives of big U.S. corporations including AT&T Inc. and FedEx Corp. are urging lawmakers to quickly enact comprehensive tax reform – especially where it will benefit their own companies, in the form of a lower corporate tax rate.
Blogs
CATO | Question of the Week: What’s the Right Point on the Laffer Curve?
Back in 2010, I wrote a post entitled “What’s the Ideal Point on the Laffer Curve?” Except I didn’t answer my own question. I simply pointed out that revenue maximization was not the ideal outcome.
Market Watch | Corporate chiefs turn up pressure for tax reform
Chief executives of big U.S. corporations including AT&T Inc. and FedEx Corp. are urging lawmakers to quickly enact comprehensive tax reform – especially where it will benefit their own companies, in the form of a lower corporate tax rate.
Blogs
CATO | Question of the Week: What’s the Right Point on the Laffer Curve?
Back in 2010, I wrote a post entitled “What’s the Ideal Point on the Laffer Curve?” Except I didn’t answer my own question. I simply pointed out that revenue maximization was not the ideal outcome.
Employment
News
Bloomberg | Capping Low-Skilled Worker Visas Central to Compromise
Under the first year of a new plan that business and labor leaders have tentatively approved as part of a Senate proposal to revise the nation’s immigration laws, employers would be able to bring in another 20,000 a year. That would gradually rise to 75,000 -- though never exceed more than 200,000 a year.
CNN Money | Europe unemployment hits record high
Official European Union figures published Tuesday showed unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high of 12.0% in February, and young people are paying a particularly heavy price.
Blogs
Market Watch | White House budget staff given furlough notices
Nearly 500 staffers at the White House’s budget office have been given furlough notices due to the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.
CBO | The Unemployment Insurance System
With the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 in January, lawmakers extended unemployment benefits—as they existed at the end of 2012—through 2013. In particular, that law extended emergency unemployment compensation for a year, allowing certain people who have been unemployed for a long time to receive benefits through December 2013. That extension will cost the federal government about $30 billion, CBO estimates.
Bloomberg | Capping Low-Skilled Worker Visas Central to Compromise
Under the first year of a new plan that business and labor leaders have tentatively approved as part of a Senate proposal to revise the nation’s immigration laws, employers would be able to bring in another 20,000 a year. That would gradually rise to 75,000 -- though never exceed more than 200,000 a year.
CNN Money | Europe unemployment hits record high
Official European Union figures published Tuesday showed unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high of 12.0% in February, and young people are paying a particularly heavy price.
Blogs
Market Watch | White House budget staff given furlough notices
Nearly 500 staffers at the White House’s budget office have been given furlough notices due to the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.
CBO | The Unemployment Insurance System
With the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 in January, lawmakers extended unemployment benefits—as they existed at the end of 2012—through 2013. In particular, that law extended emergency unemployment compensation for a year, allowing certain people who have been unemployed for a long time to receive benefits through December 2013. That extension will cost the federal government about $30 billion, CBO estimates.
Budget
News
Washington Times | College students more wary of credit card debt
The chastening impact of the recent global recession, the tightening of standards for younger card applicants by lenders and a federal law passed in 2009 are all contributing to a decline in the number of college students carrying plastic.
Washington Times | California in the red by $127.2 billion, state auditors say
A financial report issued by state auditors finds that the state of California is in the red by an unsustainable $127.2 billion.
Econ Comments & Analysis
CATO | Budget Problems Continue in Washington
The President on Tuesday signed the continuing resolution that funds the government through September and (gasp) keeps the sequester cuts intact. Now that it appears sequestration isn’t going away (and yet the earth continues to spin merrily on its axis), the focus should be on how this small step might be extended.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Obama Tax Hikes Will Balance the Budget (April Fool’s)
The Heritage Foundation has explained that spending too much is at the root of our budget crisis. But for those still skeptical, here’s a recent response from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to a question about the primary drivers of federal deficits over the next decade
Washington Times | College students more wary of credit card debt
The chastening impact of the recent global recession, the tightening of standards for younger card applicants by lenders and a federal law passed in 2009 are all contributing to a decline in the number of college students carrying plastic.
Washington Times | California in the red by $127.2 billion, state auditors say
A financial report issued by state auditors finds that the state of California is in the red by an unsustainable $127.2 billion.
Econ Comments & Analysis
CATO | Budget Problems Continue in Washington
The President on Tuesday signed the continuing resolution that funds the government through September and (gasp) keeps the sequester cuts intact. Now that it appears sequestration isn’t going away (and yet the earth continues to spin merrily on its axis), the focus should be on how this small step might be extended.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Obama Tax Hikes Will Balance the Budget (April Fool’s)
The Heritage Foundation has explained that spending too much is at the root of our budget crisis. But for those still skeptical, here’s a recent response from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to a question about the primary drivers of federal deficits over the next decade
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