News
National Journal | Where Are We on Too Big to Fail?
Even in a week where headline-grabbing scandals seem to be dominating all of Washington's time, concern over "too big to fail" banks continues to simmer.
CNN Money | The U.S. looks like Japan: Investors rejoice
The U.S. economy is still not close to being fully recovered from the Great Recession, but investors could give a mouse's posterior about this sad fact.
Bloomberg | Abe Vows to Boost Japan’s Investment in Growth Strategy Outline
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to increase private investment and infrastructure exports as part of his strategy to overcome deflation and build on an economic expansion fueled by rising consumer spending.
WSJ | Low Inflation Poses a Growth Test
The sluggishness of the U.S. economy is keeping a lid on inflation, leaving companies unable to increase prices and raising doubts about the durability of the recovery.
Bloomberg | From Brooklyn to California, Housing Bubble Threat Grows
Just a year since the U.S. housing market hit bottom after the biggest plunge in eight decades, signs of excess are re-emerging.
CNBC | Slow Growing: Bad News for Jobs, Housing; CPI Tame
Thursday's economic reports featured mostly bad news, with housing starts plunging and jobless claims rising while inflation remained under control.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | Prosperity: The Three Questions That Really Matter
Tune in to financial TV, read financial news, listen to financial radio and most of what you watch, read and hear is noise. Cable TV increased the number of channels from several to hundreds, and new media increased it from hundreds to tens of millions.
CRS | Japan's Possible Entry Into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Its Implications
On March 15, 2013, Prime Minister Abe announced that Japan would formally seek to participate in the negotiations to establish the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Japan's membership in the TPP with the United States would constitute a de facto U.S.-Japan FTA.
AEI | Unleash the private sector
In "Can America Be Fixed?" (January/February 2013), Fareed Zakaria argues that American democracy has grown increasingly dysfunctional since the 1970s and that "a series of lucky breaks" -- namely, the end of inflation, new information technologies, globalization, and excessive borrowing, which has allowed Americans to consume more than they have produced -- have covered up structural problems in the U.S. economy.
Blogs
Friday, May 17, 2013
Health Care
News
Politico | Obamacare repeal now about the IRS
Republicans have hated Obamacare for years, and on their 37th repeal vote Thursday, they found a reason to hate it even more: the IRS.
Blogs
Library of Economics | Linda Gorman on How ObamaCare Treats Middle Class
Here are some sample calculations for a wage earner couple with two children living in a state that offers Medicaid to households with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL).
Politico | Obamacare repeal now about the IRS
Republicans have hated Obamacare for years, and on their 37th repeal vote Thursday, they found a reason to hate it even more: the IRS.
Blogs
Library of Economics | Linda Gorman on How ObamaCare Treats Middle Class
Here are some sample calculations for a wage earner couple with two children living in a state that offers Medicaid to households with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL).
Monetary
News
Market Watch | Talk of Fed wind down grows louder
The drumbeat to reduce the rate of bond purchases by the Federal Reserve grew louder Thursday, with a dovish voice joining the group.
Bloomberg | Central Bankers Prisoner of Policy Guidance: Cutting Research
Policy makers can become “constrained” when they inform investors about the likely direction of interest rates, according to economists Nikola Mirkov of the University of St. Gallen and Norges Bank’s Gisle James Natvik. The topic is a hot issue at the moment as central bankers, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, embrace so-called forward guidance to enhance the power of interest rates in providing stimulus.
Blogs
Economist | Only the ECB can improve bank credit supply
As the recession in the Eurozone moves into its sixth quarter and fiscal austerity continues, the importance of reviving credit supply to the private sector in order to stimulate output growth has become all the more apparent. In the European context boosting credit supply to the private sector requires a significant recovery in bank lending, given the relatively small size of the continent’s corporate bond markets compared to those in the United States.
WSJ | Loose Central Bank Policies Looking Increasingly Dangerous, BIS Official Warns
It’s a refrain that is being heard more and more often, especially from central bankers: the world is expecting too much of them.
Market Watch | Talk of Fed wind down grows louder
The drumbeat to reduce the rate of bond purchases by the Federal Reserve grew louder Thursday, with a dovish voice joining the group.
Bloomberg | Central Bankers Prisoner of Policy Guidance: Cutting Research
Policy makers can become “constrained” when they inform investors about the likely direction of interest rates, according to economists Nikola Mirkov of the University of St. Gallen and Norges Bank’s Gisle James Natvik. The topic is a hot issue at the moment as central bankers, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, embrace so-called forward guidance to enhance the power of interest rates in providing stimulus.
Blogs
Economist | Only the ECB can improve bank credit supply
As the recession in the Eurozone moves into its sixth quarter and fiscal austerity continues, the importance of reviving credit supply to the private sector in order to stimulate output growth has become all the more apparent. In the European context boosting credit supply to the private sector requires a significant recovery in bank lending, given the relatively small size of the continent’s corporate bond markets compared to those in the United States.
WSJ | Loose Central Bank Policies Looking Increasingly Dangerous, BIS Official Warns
It’s a refrain that is being heard more and more often, especially from central bankers: the world is expecting too much of them.
Taxes
News
WSJ | The IRS Scandal Started at the Top
Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The IRS Non-Scandal Calls For a National Sales Tax
As seemingly every sentient being now knows, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has apparently been selective when it comes to the entities its agents scrutinize. Tea Party groups in particular (organizations known to be less sympathetic toward the IRS) seem to have generated abnormal amounts of attention from it.
WSJ | This Is No Ordinary Scandal
We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous.
CRS | Overview of the Federal Tax System
The major sources of federal tax revenue are individual income taxes, Social Security and other payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, excise taxes, and estate and gift taxes. This report describes the federal tax structure, provides some statistics on the tax system as a whole, and presents analysis of selected tax concepts.
AEI | How the R&D tax credit is like duct tape
Oh, the wonders of duct tape! Isn’t it a practically ideal solution for solving minor leakages, temporarily? If that's the only thing you do, using duct tape all the time would be utterly justified.
Heritage Foundation | Net Tax Increase in Obama’s Budget Over $1 Trillion
President Obama released his fiscal year 2014 budget almost two months after it was due by law. With all that extra time, the President had plenty of opportunity to clearly account for his tax increases. But like his budgets from previous years, this year’s effort hides the total tax increase he proposes
Blogs
CATO | OECD Study Admits Income Taxes Penalize Growth, Acknowledges that Tax Competition Restrains Excessive Government
I’m not a fan of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The international bureaucracy is infamous for using American tax dollars to promote a statist economic agenda. Most recently, it launched a new scheme to raise the tax burden on multinational companies, which is really just a backdoor way of saying that the OECD (and the high-tax nations that it represents) wants higher taxes on workers, consumers, and shareholders. But the OECD’s anti-market agenda goes much deeper.
WSJ | The IRS Scandal Started at the Top
Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The IRS Non-Scandal Calls For a National Sales Tax
As seemingly every sentient being now knows, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has apparently been selective when it comes to the entities its agents scrutinize. Tea Party groups in particular (organizations known to be less sympathetic toward the IRS) seem to have generated abnormal amounts of attention from it.
WSJ | This Is No Ordinary Scandal
We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous.
CRS | Overview of the Federal Tax System
The major sources of federal tax revenue are individual income taxes, Social Security and other payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, excise taxes, and estate and gift taxes. This report describes the federal tax structure, provides some statistics on the tax system as a whole, and presents analysis of selected tax concepts.
AEI | How the R&D tax credit is like duct tape
Oh, the wonders of duct tape! Isn’t it a practically ideal solution for solving minor leakages, temporarily? If that's the only thing you do, using duct tape all the time would be utterly justified.
Heritage Foundation | Net Tax Increase in Obama’s Budget Over $1 Trillion
President Obama released his fiscal year 2014 budget almost two months after it was due by law. With all that extra time, the President had plenty of opportunity to clearly account for his tax increases. But like his budgets from previous years, this year’s effort hides the total tax increase he proposes
Blogs
CATO | OECD Study Admits Income Taxes Penalize Growth, Acknowledges that Tax Competition Restrains Excessive Government
I’m not a fan of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The international bureaucracy is infamous for using American tax dollars to promote a statist economic agenda. Most recently, it launched a new scheme to raise the tax burden on multinational companies, which is really just a backdoor way of saying that the OECD (and the high-tax nations that it represents) wants higher taxes on workers, consumers, and shareholders. But the OECD’s anti-market agenda goes much deeper.
Employment
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | Obamamcare + Food Stamps = Jobless Recovery
If President Obama were to stand before the magic mirror and chant, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whose is the most jobless recovery of them all?” the mirror would answer, “Yours is, Master.” We are now 46 months into our third jobless recovery since 1991, and this one is the most jobless by far.
Forbes | Obamamcare + Food Stamps = Jobless Recovery
If President Obama were to stand before the magic mirror and chant, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whose is the most jobless recovery of them all?” the mirror would answer, “Yours is, Master.” We are now 46 months into our third jobless recovery since 1991, and this one is the most jobless by far.
Budget
News
Politico | GOP looks at big cuts for Labor, Education, HHS
House Republicans late Thursday began circulating new spending targets for appropriations bills for the coming year with Labor, Education and Health and Human Services facing a nearly 20 percent reduction on top of the cuts already made in the March 1 sequestration order.
CNN Money | Debt ceiling: Treasury soon to start juggling act
The debt ceiling clock is about to start running again. The U.S. Treasury on Friday will begin using "extraordinary measures" to keep the country from defaulting on its obligations.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Post | The $642 billion excuse
Can we get real? For starters, $642 billion is serious money, and despite the modest improvements of the latest CBO report, the basic trends in federal finances remain the same. From 2014 to 2023, the government will spend $6 trillion more than it collects in taxes. The budget never comes close to balancing.
Politico | GOP looks at big cuts for Labor, Education, HHS
House Republicans late Thursday began circulating new spending targets for appropriations bills for the coming year with Labor, Education and Health and Human Services facing a nearly 20 percent reduction on top of the cuts already made in the March 1 sequestration order.
CNN Money | Debt ceiling: Treasury soon to start juggling act
The debt ceiling clock is about to start running again. The U.S. Treasury on Friday will begin using "extraordinary measures" to keep the country from defaulting on its obligations.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Post | The $642 billion excuse
Can we get real? For starters, $642 billion is serious money, and despite the modest improvements of the latest CBO report, the basic trends in federal finances remain the same. From 2014 to 2023, the government will spend $6 trillion more than it collects in taxes. The budget never comes close to balancing.
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