News
Politico | Banking groups split on 'too big to fail'
Two of the largest bank lobbying groups each wants to be the voice of community banks in Washington, but when it comes to the reinvigorated debate over “too big to fail” — they are taking decidedly different positions.
Washington Post | German consumer confidence rises, unemployment remains low despite European financial crisis
Germany’s unemployment rate held steady in April, the Federal Labor Agency reported Tuesday, while a survey showed German consumers’ mood remained robust — two new signs that Europe’s largest economy is continuing to weather the European financial crisis.
Washington Times | Consumer confidence up on better hiring outlook
Americans’ confidence in the economy jumped this month, helped by a better outlook for the job market and expectations for higher pay.
CNBC | Mortgage Applications Rose Last Week as Rates Fell
Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week, fueled by demand for refinancings as interest rates dropped, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | Obama has a sweet retirement package. Will you?
President Obama's proposal to limit the value of 401(k)s, pensions, and other tax-favored retirement accounts to about $3.4 million certainly sounds reasonable. After all, at a time of big budget deficits, we shouldn't subsidize "the rich" with tax breaks, should we?
Washington Times | The high cost of zero
The count is 1,920, and rising. That’s how many regulations President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promulgated since his 2009 inauguration. Many, if not most, will bring few health or environmental benefits — but will impose high economic and unemployment costs, often to advance the administration’s unabashedly anti-hydrocarbon agenda.
Fortune | Study: Megabanks may disappear
A report about the global banking industry by Boston Consulting Group, which was released on Tuesday, says new regulations and less business will force the big banks to dramatically shrink.
Real Clear Markets | A Realist's View of the Global Trading System
There is great lamentation these days about the state of the multilateral trading system and its institutional symbol, the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Doha Round of multilateral negotiations has now dragged on for twelve years, with no end in sight on major issues.
Blogs
WSJ | The Myth of the Manufacturing ‘Renaissance’
Morgan Stanley has firmly joined the “Where’s the beef?” crowd when it comes to America’s supposed factory renaissance.
Heritage Foundation | Uncle Sam Wants You… on Food Stamps?
Across the country, states are courting participants for food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) even has a webpage dedicated to helping states create “SNAP Outreach Plans.”
WSJ | Who Claims the Mortgage-Interest Tax Deduction?
One lesson we learned from the housing-market collapse is if you encourage Americans to borrow — by making home-mortgage interest tax deductible — people will borrow more, maybe too much for their own good. But who exactly tends to take advantage of this tax benefit?
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Health Care
News
Politico | Democrats fret over Obamacare as 2014 looms
Democrats are fretting that Obamacare is going to crush their hopes of big gains in the midterm elections, just like it cost them the House in 2010.
CNN Money | Here's the form to apply for Obamacare coverage
Starting in October, Americans without access to affordable health care coverage through their jobs will be able to shop for insurance for themselves and their families through state-run exchanges.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | States Can Save Taxpayers $609 Billion
As the battle over Medicaid expansion rages in the states, supporters of expansion have dusted off an age-old favorite in making the case for taking federal dollars. They say: If our state doesn't take the money, those dollars will go to some other state instead.
NBER | Mergers When Prices are Negotiated: Evidence from the Hospital Industry
In healthcare and other bilateral oligopoly markets, prices are often negotiated by the contracting parties. Many hospitals have merged in recent years in part to gain bargaining leverage with managed care organizations (MCOs), leading to several antitrust trials.
Politico | Democrats fret over Obamacare as 2014 looms
Democrats are fretting that Obamacare is going to crush their hopes of big gains in the midterm elections, just like it cost them the House in 2010.
CNN Money | Here's the form to apply for Obamacare coverage
Starting in October, Americans without access to affordable health care coverage through their jobs will be able to shop for insurance for themselves and their families through state-run exchanges.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | States Can Save Taxpayers $609 Billion
As the battle over Medicaid expansion rages in the states, supporters of expansion have dusted off an age-old favorite in making the case for taking federal dollars. They say: If our state doesn't take the money, those dollars will go to some other state instead.
NBER | Mergers When Prices are Negotiated: Evidence from the Hospital Industry
In healthcare and other bilateral oligopoly markets, prices are often negotiated by the contracting parties. Many hospitals have merged in recent years in part to gain bargaining leverage with managed care organizations (MCOs), leading to several antitrust trials.
Monetary
News
Bloomberg | Fed Seen Slowing Stimulus With QE Cut by End of This Year
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will probably reduce the Federal Reserve’s monthly bond buying in the fourth quarter to $50 billion from $85 billion as he begins to unwind record stimulus, economists said in a Bloomberg survey.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | Central banks’ unorthodox policies explain low rates
Sir, In trying to explain the differences between UK and Spanish long-term government borrowing rates, Martin Wolf advances a number of plausible explanations ("What a floating rate gives and what it does not", April 26).
Blogs
WSJ | Looking for Inflation? It Vanished
Pick through the ruins of the April Chicago PMI, an economic gauge that polls purchasing managers, and one phrase stands out: “inflation nearly vanished”.
Library of Economics | The Hulk's Handshakes and Optimal Monetary Policy
The world's a complex place and we don't know a lot about how it works. To make matters worse, it's not just that we're ignorant about the world, we're ignorant about ourselves: We rarely know our own strength. Given our ignorance, how should we interact with the world around us?
Bloomberg | Fed Seen Slowing Stimulus With QE Cut by End of This Year
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will probably reduce the Federal Reserve’s monthly bond buying in the fourth quarter to $50 billion from $85 billion as he begins to unwind record stimulus, economists said in a Bloomberg survey.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | Central banks’ unorthodox policies explain low rates
Sir, In trying to explain the differences between UK and Spanish long-term government borrowing rates, Martin Wolf advances a number of plausible explanations ("What a floating rate gives and what it does not", April 26).
Blogs
WSJ | Looking for Inflation? It Vanished
Pick through the ruins of the April Chicago PMI, an economic gauge that polls purchasing managers, and one phrase stands out: “inflation nearly vanished”.
Library of Economics | The Hulk's Handshakes and Optimal Monetary Policy
The world's a complex place and we don't know a lot about how it works. To make matters worse, it's not just that we're ignorant about the world, we're ignorant about ourselves: We rarely know our own strength. Given our ignorance, how should we interact with the world around us?
Taxes
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The Irony Of An Internet Tax That Demands Simplification
The latest proposal to allow states to levy online sales tax is gaining traction because advocates say they have addressed one of the big objections to a federal law, namely the complexity of the current system of more than 9,500 separate taxing districts.
Washington Times | A second-term second chance
It’s not too premature to now say that President Obama’s second-term agenda is adrift — that is, if he ever had a really well-thought-out agenda to begin with.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Internet Sales Tax Hits Fastest-Growing Industries
The Marketplace Fairness Act, also known as the Internet sales tax, would burden the fastest-growing industries in the United States with a tidal wave of new regulations, which is bad news for American consumers and entrepreneurs.
Real Clear Markets | The Irony Of An Internet Tax That Demands Simplification
The latest proposal to allow states to levy online sales tax is gaining traction because advocates say they have addressed one of the big objections to a federal law, namely the complexity of the current system of more than 9,500 separate taxing districts.
Washington Times | A second-term second chance
It’s not too premature to now say that President Obama’s second-term agenda is adrift — that is, if he ever had a really well-thought-out agenda to begin with.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Internet Sales Tax Hits Fastest-Growing Industries
The Marketplace Fairness Act, also known as the Internet sales tax, would burden the fastest-growing industries in the United States with a tidal wave of new regulations, which is bad news for American consumers and entrepreneurs.
Employment
News
FOX Business | Private Sector Tacks On 119,000 Jobs in April
U.S. private employers added 119,000 jobs in April, well below economists' expectations in the latest piece of data to suggest the economy is encountering a soft patch, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Blogs
WSJ | Debate Over Labor Force Participation
All this focus on labor-force participation, whatever its causes and consequences, is a distraction from the far more pressing threat of high joblessness. Nearly four years into our supposed recovery, the U.S. still employs nearly 3 million fewer people than when the recession began.
FOX Business | Private Sector Tacks On 119,000 Jobs in April
U.S. private employers added 119,000 jobs in April, well below economists' expectations in the latest piece of data to suggest the economy is encountering a soft patch, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Blogs
WSJ | Debate Over Labor Force Participation
All this focus on labor-force participation, whatever its causes and consequences, is a distraction from the far more pressing threat of high joblessness. Nearly four years into our supposed recovery, the U.S. still employs nearly 3 million fewer people than when the recession began.
Budget
Blogs
CATO | Government Spending Up, Private GDP Down
It drives a lot of us at Cato nuts to read news stories almost every day which simply assume that government spending is good for the economy. Any defense or nondefense spending restraint will hurt economic growth, it is assumed. Even a recent AEI study seemed to accept this Keynesian concept.
CATO | Government Spending Up, Private GDP Down
It drives a lot of us at Cato nuts to read news stories almost every day which simply assume that government spending is good for the economy. Any defense or nondefense spending restraint will hurt economic growth, it is assumed. Even a recent AEI study seemed to accept this Keynesian concept.
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