News
Market Watch | 30-year mortgage rate falls to 3.43%
The average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.43% in the week ending April 11 from 3.54% in the prior week, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly report.
Washington Times | Standard & Poor’s 500 climbs to an all-time high
Stocks rose sharply on Wall Street on Wednesday, pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to an all-time high.
Bloomberg | Gain for Highest Earners Helps Bolster U.S. Consumer Confidence
Confidence among U.S. consumers was little changed last week as gains for top earners helped overcome growing pessimism at the other end of the income scale.
CNBC | Immigration Reform: What's It Going to Cost?
One argument that helped bury immigration reform in 2006—after much debate, Congress failed to pass a final bill—was that it would inflict too heavy a burden on the U.S. economy.
Washington Times | Gas prices expected to stay low this summer
Gasoline prices this summer will be the lowest in three years as people drive less and use more fuel-efficient cars, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | The Obama Price Index
President Obama is said to be trying to lure Republicans into another grand bargain by including a proposal in his 2014 budget that would slightly slow the growth of Social Security and other federal benefits. But he's also telling the Democrats going bonkers about slashing Social Security not to worry, the cuts aren't drastic and barely noticeable.
Businessweek | Cheap Mortgages Are Hiding the Truth About Home Prices
At first blush, home buying looks quite affordable right now. New data from real estate website Zillow (Z) show that if a person earning the median income of $52,513 buys a home at the median price of $157,400, he would spend just 12.6 percent of his income on mortgage payments. That’s more than one-third less than the prebubble averages, when a mortgage on a median-priced home would cost about 20 percent of a median income.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Health Care
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | Obama budget’s destructive impact on Medicaid
It’s been three years since the Democrats in Congress passed President Obama’s sweeping health care plan and the tragedy of the left’s so-called good intentions continues to mount.
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare’s Essential Benefits Regulation Creates Disparities Among States
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued final rules for Obamacare’s essential health benefits (EHB) package, setting up yet another new source of conflict over Obamacare, this time among the states
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Americans Continue to Oppose Obamacare’s HHS Mandate
On Monday, hundreds of thousands of public comments flooded the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as individuals and groups expressed concern with the Obama Administration’s continued trampling on a fundamental freedom.
Washington Times | Obama budget’s destructive impact on Medicaid
It’s been three years since the Democrats in Congress passed President Obama’s sweeping health care plan and the tragedy of the left’s so-called good intentions continues to mount.
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare’s Essential Benefits Regulation Creates Disparities Among States
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued final rules for Obamacare’s essential health benefits (EHB) package, setting up yet another new source of conflict over Obamacare, this time among the states
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Americans Continue to Oppose Obamacare’s HHS Mandate
On Monday, hundreds of thousands of public comments flooded the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as individuals and groups expressed concern with the Obama Administration’s continued trampling on a fundamental freedom.
Monetary
News
FOX News | Fed minutes, released early, show most members support bond purchases at least through midyear
A majority of Federal Reserve policymakers want to continue extraordinary bond purchases to help boost the U.S. economy at least through the middle of the year, according to minutes from the Fed's last meeting released Wednesday.
Bloomberg | Central Bank Transparency Grows Under Geraats Pressure
Petra Geraats experienced the opacity of central banks first-hand. As a doctoral economics student at the University of California-Berkeley, she spent the summer of 1999 at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. The paper she wrote said the infant institution should publish its economic forecasts.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Fed's Plosser: Time to scale back asset purchases
The Federal Reserve should start now to begin scaling back the pace of its bond-buying program asset given sufficient improvement already seen in the U.S. labor market, said Charles Plosser, the president of the Philadelphia Fed Bank, on Thursday.
Blogs
WSJ | IMF: Low Interest Rates Raise Risk of Money-Market Mutual Fund Run
Money-market mutual funds could face widespread investor panic if debt markets suddenly sour, the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday.
FOX News | Fed minutes, released early, show most members support bond purchases at least through midyear
A majority of Federal Reserve policymakers want to continue extraordinary bond purchases to help boost the U.S. economy at least through the middle of the year, according to minutes from the Fed's last meeting released Wednesday.
Bloomberg | Central Bank Transparency Grows Under Geraats Pressure
Petra Geraats experienced the opacity of central banks first-hand. As a doctoral economics student at the University of California-Berkeley, she spent the summer of 1999 at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. The paper she wrote said the infant institution should publish its economic forecasts.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Fed's Plosser: Time to scale back asset purchases
The Federal Reserve should start now to begin scaling back the pace of its bond-buying program asset given sufficient improvement already seen in the U.S. labor market, said Charles Plosser, the president of the Philadelphia Fed Bank, on Thursday.
Blogs
WSJ | IMF: Low Interest Rates Raise Risk of Money-Market Mutual Fund Run
Money-market mutual funds could face widespread investor panic if debt markets suddenly sour, the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday.
Taxes
News
CNN Money | Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack
President's Obama's call for a 94-cent-a-pack hike on federal cigarette taxes to fund early childhood education programs is controversial.
Market Watch | Lew: White House open to individual tax reform
The White House is open to working with House Republicans on an overhaul of the individual tax code, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Thursday.
CNN Money | Tax dodgers will have a tougher time in Luxembourg
Europe's last bastions of banking secrecy are crumbling, as governments come under pressure to do more to tackle tax evasion.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | For $168 Billion, We Should Get a Better Return
Everyone complains about the complexity of the tax code. The Internal Revenue Service’s taxpayer advocate cites it as the No. 1 problem. Politicians seem to agree that the road to tax simplification goes through lower rates and a broader base. Yet all that consensus has yielded precious little progress.
Fortune | Debunking today's carried interest tax arguments
President Obama today unveiled his federal budget proposal, which included a change to how private equity fund managers are taxed on investment profits (i.e., carried interest).
AEI | Overhauling the tax code: The devil is in the transition
Tax reform continues to move forward like a freight train, slowly picking up speed on a long journey to the president's desk. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) have forged an admirable working relationship, and they have publicly committed to doing something incredibly difficult in Washington: create winners and losers in tax policy.
CNN Money | Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack
President's Obama's call for a 94-cent-a-pack hike on federal cigarette taxes to fund early childhood education programs is controversial.
Market Watch | Lew: White House open to individual tax reform
The White House is open to working with House Republicans on an overhaul of the individual tax code, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Thursday.
CNN Money | Tax dodgers will have a tougher time in Luxembourg
Europe's last bastions of banking secrecy are crumbling, as governments come under pressure to do more to tackle tax evasion.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | For $168 Billion, We Should Get a Better Return
Everyone complains about the complexity of the tax code. The Internal Revenue Service’s taxpayer advocate cites it as the No. 1 problem. Politicians seem to agree that the road to tax simplification goes through lower rates and a broader base. Yet all that consensus has yielded precious little progress.
Fortune | Debunking today's carried interest tax arguments
President Obama today unveiled his federal budget proposal, which included a change to how private equity fund managers are taxed on investment profits (i.e., carried interest).
AEI | Overhauling the tax code: The devil is in the transition
Tax reform continues to move forward like a freight train, slowly picking up speed on a long journey to the president's desk. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) have forged an admirable working relationship, and they have publicly committed to doing something incredibly difficult in Washington: create winners and losers in tax policy.
Employment
News
Bloomberg | Jobless Claims Drop Affirms U.S. Labor Market Progress: Economy
Jobless claims plunged by 42,000 to 346,000 in the week ended April 6 from a revised 388,000, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Consumer confidence was little changed last week as gains for top earners helped overcome growing pessimism at the other end of the income scale, another report showed.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Barrons | No Workers' Paradise
Rarely has the cliché rung as true as with the latest report that showed the nation's jobless rate fell 0.1 of a percentage point last month, to 7.6%—even though fewer people had jobs and more were unemployed. The improvement, if you can call it that, was the result of nearly half a million folks dropping out of the labor force and the smallest percentage of the working-age population in the workforce in a generation.
Bloomberg | Jobless Claims Drop Affirms U.S. Labor Market Progress: Economy
Jobless claims plunged by 42,000 to 346,000 in the week ended April 6 from a revised 388,000, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Consumer confidence was little changed last week as gains for top earners helped overcome growing pessimism at the other end of the income scale, another report showed.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Barrons | No Workers' Paradise
Rarely has the cliché rung as true as with the latest report that showed the nation's jobless rate fell 0.1 of a percentage point last month, to 7.6%—even though fewer people had jobs and more were unemployed. The improvement, if you can call it that, was the result of nearly half a million folks dropping out of the labor force and the smallest percentage of the working-age population in the workforce in a generation.
Budget
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | FY2014 Budget Proposals In Perspective
With the recent release of President Obama’s FY 2014 budget, it is important to put the budget numbers from the various proposals into proper perspective.
WSJ | The Obama Budget's Economic Message
Presidents use their budgets to set priorities, make choices and provide leadership. Budgets are one of the most important tools for guiding and managing a large, complex organization.
Fortune | Current fiscal policy harms U.S. competitiveness
Political dysfunction in D.C. has led to the American public being barraged by continuous media reports about the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and the sequester. But the political skirmishes and impasses around these short-term events are distracting us from the real danger ahead: Our reckless fiscal trajectory that threatens America's competitiveness.
Investors | 6 Ways Obama's Budget Is Worse Than Everyone Thinks
Fiscal Policy: Shorn of its accounting gimmicks, the president's budget isn't a "balanced" plan to get the debt crisis under control. It's a monument to fiscal irresponsibility.
Blogs
WSJ | Budget Deficit Is Shrinking – a Lot
Lost in the chatter about President Barack Obama’s behind-schedule delivery of his annual budget was this word from the U.S. Treasury: The federal deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year (October 2012-March 2013) was $600 billion, a whole lot less than the $779 billion recorded for the same months of the previous year.
CATO | Obama’s Budget “Savings”
When the previous Bush administration released its fiscal 2006 budget proposal, it included a separate document listing specific spending cuts and other reforms. The idea was too little and too late, and it’s likely that the Bush administration included it as part of a feeble attempt to answer critics of the Republican spending binge.
Heritage Foundation | The Obama Budget in One Infographic
President Obama released his 2014 budget more than 60 days late. Heritage’s team of policy experts spent the better part of yesterday combing through it to discover proposals that impose new taxes on Americans, expand the size of the federal government, and further erode individual freedom and our national defense. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t even attempt to balance the budget — now or in the future.
Mercatus | FY2014 Budget Proposals In Perspective
With the recent release of President Obama’s FY 2014 budget, it is important to put the budget numbers from the various proposals into proper perspective.
WSJ | The Obama Budget's Economic Message
Presidents use their budgets to set priorities, make choices and provide leadership. Budgets are one of the most important tools for guiding and managing a large, complex organization.
Fortune | Current fiscal policy harms U.S. competitiveness
Political dysfunction in D.C. has led to the American public being barraged by continuous media reports about the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and the sequester. But the political skirmishes and impasses around these short-term events are distracting us from the real danger ahead: Our reckless fiscal trajectory that threatens America's competitiveness.
Investors | 6 Ways Obama's Budget Is Worse Than Everyone Thinks
Fiscal Policy: Shorn of its accounting gimmicks, the president's budget isn't a "balanced" plan to get the debt crisis under control. It's a monument to fiscal irresponsibility.
Blogs
WSJ | Budget Deficit Is Shrinking – a Lot
Lost in the chatter about President Barack Obama’s behind-schedule delivery of his annual budget was this word from the U.S. Treasury: The federal deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year (October 2012-March 2013) was $600 billion, a whole lot less than the $779 billion recorded for the same months of the previous year.
CATO | Obama’s Budget “Savings”
When the previous Bush administration released its fiscal 2006 budget proposal, it included a separate document listing specific spending cuts and other reforms. The idea was too little and too late, and it’s likely that the Bush administration included it as part of a feeble attempt to answer critics of the Republican spending binge.
Heritage Foundation | The Obama Budget in One Infographic
President Obama released his 2014 budget more than 60 days late. Heritage’s team of policy experts spent the better part of yesterday combing through it to discover proposals that impose new taxes on Americans, expand the size of the federal government, and further erode individual freedom and our national defense. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t even attempt to balance the budget — now or in the future.
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