News
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Manufacturing Contracted for 21st Month in April
Euro-area manufacturing output contracted for a 21st straight month in April, adding to pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates to spur lending and growth.
National Journal | Has Washington Given Up on the Economy?
It seems like ages since the passionate, months-long presidential campaign fought largely over how to help the middle class and rev up job creation.
Bloomberg | Trade Deficit in U.S. Narrowed More Than Forecast in March
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than forecast in March to its second-lowest level in three years as imports of consumer goods and business equipment declined.
Market Watch | U.S. productivity climbs 0.7% in first quarter
U.S. workers and businesses improved their productivity in the first quarter after a sharp drop in the waning months of 2012, the government reported Thursday.
Washington Times | Stocks sink as economic outlook dims; Dow off 138
The stock market fell the most in two weeks as the outlook for the economy grew dimmer. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 138 points to close at 14,701 Wednesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 dropped 14 to 1,582. The Nasdaq lost 29 points to 3,299.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Daily Caller | Does the free market cause wealth inequality?
The wealth gap is a serious problem. The richest 20 percent of Americans now own 80 percent of the country’s wealth. Over the past three decades, the average American has seen his income either fall or remain flat.
New Republic | Calculating the dollars-and-cents costs of policy uncertainty
Two kinds of uncertainty affect our decisions—the unpredictability of the world, and the instability that indecision about law and policy creates. The former is perennial and ineradicable; the latter varies with the character of governance.
CRS | Counting Regulations: An Overview of Rulemaking, Types of Federal Regulations, and Pages in the Federal Register
Federal rulemaking is an important mechanism through which the federal government implements policy. Federal agencies issue regulations pursuant to statutory authority granted by Congress.
Heritage Foundation | Red Tape Rising: Regulation in Obama’s First Term
Congress and the White House have been focused for months on the federal budget—rightfully so, given perennial deficits and unsustainable levels of U.S. debt. However, federal spending accounts for only a portion of the burden placed on Americans by the government.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: 5 Ways the Immigration Bill Is Like Obamacare
Congress rammed Obamacare through without many Members even reading the bill. Now it’s applying that same frantic, complex, pie-in-the-sky legislating to immigration. The similarities are frightening.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Health Care
Econ Comments & Analysis
Investors | ObamaCare Is Blocking Job Creation, Economic Growth
On Friday the government will release its unemployment report for April. The jobs numbers last month were a huge disappointment. Americans can't afford more bad news.
CATO | Obamacare’s ‘Benefits’ Are Gradually Becoming Apparent
At his press conference Tuesday, President Obama assured Americans that, “To the 85-90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance: They’re already experiencing most of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act even if they don’t know it.”
Blogs
Library of Economics | Medicare Kills a Program
What do you do when you find a program that actually works, that is, saves the government money and improves health outcomes? If you're the people who run Medicare, the socialized health insurance program for the elderly, you kill it. Or, at least, that's what the Medicare bureaucracy is about to do with one such program.
Investors | ObamaCare Is Blocking Job Creation, Economic Growth
On Friday the government will release its unemployment report for April. The jobs numbers last month were a huge disappointment. Americans can't afford more bad news.
CATO | Obamacare’s ‘Benefits’ Are Gradually Becoming Apparent
At his press conference Tuesday, President Obama assured Americans that, “To the 85-90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance: They’re already experiencing most of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act even if they don’t know it.”
Blogs
Library of Economics | Medicare Kills a Program
What do you do when you find a program that actually works, that is, saves the government money and improves health outcomes? If you're the people who run Medicare, the socialized health insurance program for the elderly, you kill it. Or, at least, that's what the Medicare bureaucracy is about to do with one such program.
Monetary
Econ Comments & Analysis
USA Today | Deflation, not inflation, could bedevil markets
The yield on the bellwether 10-year Treasury note dipped to a 2013 low of 1.62% Wednesday as traders' worries turned from inflation to falling prices. The latest economic reports shows wage pressures are less than half what the Federal Reserve says is acceptable.
Businessweek | Why the Fed Worries Inflation Is too Low
The Federal Reserve’s rate-setters announced on Wednesday that they are forging ahead with ultra-easy money, in part because inflation is running “somewhat below” the Fed’s target of 2 percent. The Federal Open Market Committee said it will leave the funds rate where it is, just above zero, and keep buying bonds at a pace of $85 billion a month.
NY Post | Sink QE! (the money-printing plan, that is)
The Federal Reserve made it official yesterday, saying it’s full steam ahead for the money-printing operation that is creating all sorts of financial dislocations without helping the economy grow very much.
Blogs
Economist | Risk-aversion risk
[D]evelopments on growth and inflation would ordinarily argue for a bias to raising, not lowering, QE. But an increase in QE is unlikely, for two reasons.
Economist | Fearful symmetry
The Federal Reserve, as widely expected, stood pat today, reaffirming its commitment to near zero interest rates until unemployment fell to 6.5% or lower, and continuing to buy $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds until the jobs market improved substantially.
USA Today | Deflation, not inflation, could bedevil markets
The yield on the bellwether 10-year Treasury note dipped to a 2013 low of 1.62% Wednesday as traders' worries turned from inflation to falling prices. The latest economic reports shows wage pressures are less than half what the Federal Reserve says is acceptable.
Businessweek | Why the Fed Worries Inflation Is too Low
The Federal Reserve’s rate-setters announced on Wednesday that they are forging ahead with ultra-easy money, in part because inflation is running “somewhat below” the Fed’s target of 2 percent. The Federal Open Market Committee said it will leave the funds rate where it is, just above zero, and keep buying bonds at a pace of $85 billion a month.
NY Post | Sink QE! (the money-printing plan, that is)
The Federal Reserve made it official yesterday, saying it’s full steam ahead for the money-printing operation that is creating all sorts of financial dislocations without helping the economy grow very much.
Blogs
Economist | Risk-aversion risk
[D]evelopments on growth and inflation would ordinarily argue for a bias to raising, not lowering, QE. But an increase in QE is unlikely, for two reasons.
Economist | Fearful symmetry
The Federal Reserve, as widely expected, stood pat today, reaffirming its commitment to near zero interest rates until unemployment fell to 6.5% or lower, and continuing to buy $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds until the jobs market improved substantially.
Taxes
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | Should you let the IRS do your taxes for you?
Today, the majority of individual tax returns are filed electronically, rather than by mail. Electronic filing saves taxpayers money and reduces the likelihood that they will make mistakes.
AEI | Should you let the IRS do your taxes for you?
Today, the majority of individual tax returns are filed electronically, rather than by mail. Electronic filing saves taxpayers money and reduces the likelihood that they will make mistakes.
Employment
News
CNN Money | Jobless claims fall to 5-year low
First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in five years last week, signaling fewer layoffs in the economy.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Gallup | U.S. Job Creation Remains in Higher Territory in April
Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index was +19 in April, near the top of the narrow range found since March 2012, and higher than levels seen from 2009 through 2011.
Washington Post | Unemployment rates fall in 90 percent of US cities as more Americans give up job search
Unemployment rates fell in nearly 90 percent of large U.S. cities in March, though most of the declines likely occurred because more Americans stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs.
Blogs
Economist | The lost generation
Nearly a quarter of the world's young people are economically inactive - not in employment, education or training. Failing to employ the young today damages growth now and in the future
CNN Money | Jobless claims fall to 5-year low
First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in five years last week, signaling fewer layoffs in the economy.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Gallup | U.S. Job Creation Remains in Higher Territory in April
Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index was +19 in April, near the top of the narrow range found since March 2012, and higher than levels seen from 2009 through 2011.
Washington Post | Unemployment rates fall in 90 percent of US cities as more Americans give up job search
Unemployment rates fell in nearly 90 percent of large U.S. cities in March, though most of the declines likely occurred because more Americans stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs.
Blogs
Economist | The lost generation
Nearly a quarter of the world's young people are economically inactive - not in employment, education or training. Failing to employ the young today damages growth now and in the future
Budget
News
Washington Times | Feds spend $4 million for food stamps at farmers markets
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has expanded its food stamp program to farmers markets around the nation, announcing a $4 million grant plan to entice recipients to buy fruits and vegetables.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | President Obama's new budget drops key reform
There is a lot not to like in the new budget recently released by President Barack Obama. The nearly $1 trillion in higher taxes would only serve to impede economic growth, and the failure to reform entitlement programs leaves them on the path to insolvency.
Heritage Foundation | Debt and Growth in a Time of Controversy
The weight of the evidence indicates that high debt slows growth, but there is no magic threshold above which any country at any time will experience slower growth. This truth has been illustrated in the recent controversy around “Growth in a Time of Debt,” an academic paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff
Bloomberg | Reinhart-Rogoff Uproar Settles Nothing
By now, you’re probably tired of all the back-and-forth on Reinhart and Rogoff. That would be Harvard University’s Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, the economists who co-authored the 2009 best-seller, “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Follies,” and who are now on the firing line because of minor data errors in a 2010 working paper.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Temporary Debt Paydown Just a Drop in the Bucket
Reports that the federal government will put a little bit of money toward the massive federal debt for the first time in six years make for an interesting tidbit, but Washington’s spending and debt problem is only getting bigger.
Washington Times | Feds spend $4 million for food stamps at farmers markets
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has expanded its food stamp program to farmers markets around the nation, announcing a $4 million grant plan to entice recipients to buy fruits and vegetables.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | President Obama's new budget drops key reform
There is a lot not to like in the new budget recently released by President Barack Obama. The nearly $1 trillion in higher taxes would only serve to impede economic growth, and the failure to reform entitlement programs leaves them on the path to insolvency.
Heritage Foundation | Debt and Growth in a Time of Controversy
The weight of the evidence indicates that high debt slows growth, but there is no magic threshold above which any country at any time will experience slower growth. This truth has been illustrated in the recent controversy around “Growth in a Time of Debt,” an academic paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff
Bloomberg | Reinhart-Rogoff Uproar Settles Nothing
By now, you’re probably tired of all the back-and-forth on Reinhart and Rogoff. That would be Harvard University’s Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, the economists who co-authored the 2009 best-seller, “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Follies,” and who are now on the firing line because of minor data errors in a 2010 working paper.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Temporary Debt Paydown Just a Drop in the Bucket
Reports that the federal government will put a little bit of money toward the massive federal debt for the first time in six years make for an interesting tidbit, but Washington’s spending and debt problem is only getting bigger.
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