News
National Journal | My Hometown: What Detroit's Demise Says About America
My ancestors helped build Detroit. The Fourniers were fur-trappers and farmers living hard by the Detroit River until the fledgling auto industry beckoned in the early 1900s with a better deal: $5 a day and a pension.
Bloomberg | BRIC Bust Seen in Emerging Market Discontent With Growth
Stretched budgets and sluggish growth are putting emerging-market governments on a collision course with rising pressures from recently empowered middle classes for more spending and better services.
Market Watch | Home sales see slight drop in June
Sales of existing homes slipped in June, indicating a slight impact from rising mortgage rates but still marking the second-highest rate in about 3 ½ years, according to data released Monday.
WSJ | More Americans Living in Others' Homes
The number of Americans living in someone else's home for economic reasons rose in the past year despite an improving labor market, posing a challenge for the housing market and the broader recovery.
CNBC | Watch out, US crude prices could correct 35%: Analyst
The price of U.S. crude may have caught up with North Sea Brent oil prices in the past week, but now looks overvalued and faces a sharp pull back of up to 35 percent, says one analyst.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | The Economy Is Showing Signs of Life
The U.S. economy may finally be in a position to accelerate above the so-called new normal—the painfully slow 2% average growth rate that has persisted since 2009.
WSJ | Housing Recovery Increasingly Prices Out First-Time Buyers
First-time home buyers, long a key underpinning of the housing market, are increasingly getting left behind in the real-estate recovery.
AEI | Remake Detroit, or empty it
Detroit spent decades trying to counter the decline of the auto industry by building things.
Blogs
Market Watch | For home prices, it’s back to 2005, according to FHFA data
U.S. home prices in May as measured by the Federal Housing Finance Agency rose 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis, or up 7.3% on a year-on-year basis, according to data released Tuesday.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Health Care
News
CNN Money | How Obamacare's 'privacy nightmare' database really works
When shoppers apply for health insurance through the forthcoming state-based Obamacare exchanges, the online system will verify each applicant's information by pulling in data from more than half a dozen federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Peace Corps. It will know who you are, how much money you make, and whether or not you're in the United States legally.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | The Tax Exemption of Employer-Provided Health Insurance
The Federal government currently does not tax health insurance when employers provide it to their employees as part of the employee’s compensation package. The income tax revenue forgone due to this practice is the single largest “tax expenditure” in the federal income tax code. But the lost tax revenue is not the main economic concern with this or other tax expenditures.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | The Case for Medicare Reform
The panel meets in secret, is controlled by special interests, and helps determine the allocation of nearly $100 billion in federal health care spending.
CNN Money | How Obamacare's 'privacy nightmare' database really works
When shoppers apply for health insurance through the forthcoming state-based Obamacare exchanges, the online system will verify each applicant's information by pulling in data from more than half a dozen federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Peace Corps. It will know who you are, how much money you make, and whether or not you're in the United States legally.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Mercatus | The Tax Exemption of Employer-Provided Health Insurance
The Federal government currently does not tax health insurance when employers provide it to their employees as part of the employee’s compensation package. The income tax revenue forgone due to this practice is the single largest “tax expenditure” in the federal income tax code. But the lost tax revenue is not the main economic concern with this or other tax expenditures.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | The Case for Medicare Reform
The panel meets in secret, is controlled by special interests, and helps determine the allocation of nearly $100 billion in federal health care spending.
Monetary
News
Bloomberg | Bernanke Seen Slowing QE to $65 Billion in September
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in September will trim the Fed’s monthly bond buying to $65 billion from the current pace of $85 billion, according to a growing number of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The Feds Exploit the 'Systemic Risk' Myth To Suffocate Insurers
In the above passage Howard Kershner was describing Germany in the aftermath of World War II. It's a passage worth reviving every time the notion of ‘too big to fail' is trotted out by commentators, politicians, and federal bureaucrats.
Bloomberg | Banks’ Size Is Greater Threat Than Complexity
Senators from both sides of the political divide are displaying an encouraging resolve to break up the country’s biggest banks. Unfortunately, they’re focusing too much on the complexity of big bank operations and ignoring the greater threat entailed in their enormous size.
Bloomberg | Bernanke Seen Slowing QE to $65 Billion in September
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in September will trim the Fed’s monthly bond buying to $65 billion from the current pace of $85 billion, according to a growing number of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | The Feds Exploit the 'Systemic Risk' Myth To Suffocate Insurers
In the above passage Howard Kershner was describing Germany in the aftermath of World War II. It's a passage worth reviving every time the notion of ‘too big to fail' is trotted out by commentators, politicians, and federal bureaucrats.
Bloomberg | Banks’ Size Is Greater Threat Than Complexity
Senators from both sides of the political divide are displaying an encouraging resolve to break up the country’s biggest banks. Unfortunately, they’re focusing too much on the complexity of big bank operations and ignoring the greater threat entailed in their enormous size.
Taxes
News
Washington Times | Alaska voters to weigh oil production slide vs. costly tax incentives
A fight over a tax cut is morphing into a battle over Alaskans‘ sense of themselves and of an energy-based economy that has long distinguished Alaska from the Lower 48.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | A Global Revenue Grab
After five years of failing to spur a robust economic recovery through spending and tax hikes, the world's richest countries have hit upon a new idea that looks a lot like the old: International coordination to raise taxes on business.
Mercatus | Three Problems with Back-to-School Sales Tax Holidays
August has become a holiday season of sorts – a "tax holiday" season. As families begin planning for back-to-school shopping and retailers begin offering their annual discounts and sales, at least 17 different states will be offering temporary suspensions of sales taxes on certain goods.
AEI | Capital income taxation: Reframing the debate
Although capital income taxes penalize saving and slow long-run growth, the federal tax system imposes multiple such taxes.
Washington Times | Alaska voters to weigh oil production slide vs. costly tax incentives
A fight over a tax cut is morphing into a battle over Alaskans‘ sense of themselves and of an energy-based economy that has long distinguished Alaska from the Lower 48.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | A Global Revenue Grab
After five years of failing to spur a robust economic recovery through spending and tax hikes, the world's richest countries have hit upon a new idea that looks a lot like the old: International coordination to raise taxes on business.
Mercatus | Three Problems with Back-to-School Sales Tax Holidays
August has become a holiday season of sorts – a "tax holiday" season. As families begin planning for back-to-school shopping and retailers begin offering their annual discounts and sales, at least 17 different states will be offering temporary suspensions of sales taxes on certain goods.
AEI | Capital income taxation: Reframing the debate
Although capital income taxes penalize saving and slow long-run growth, the federal tax system imposes multiple such taxes.
Employment
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | The Minimum Wage Is Cruelest To Those Who Can't Find A Job
U.S. youth unemployment now stands at 16 percent for 16–24 year olds, 23 percent for teens, and a shocking 40 percent for black teens. More than 10 million young people are either unemployed or underemployed. Would increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 over the next three years, and then indexing it for inflation, improve the job outlook and brighten the future for younger workers?
Forbes | The Minimum Wage Is Cruelest To Those Who Can't Find A Job
U.S. youth unemployment now stands at 16 percent for 16–24 year olds, 23 percent for teens, and a shocking 40 percent for black teens. More than 10 million young people are either unemployed or underemployed. Would increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 over the next three years, and then indexing it for inflation, improve the job outlook and brighten the future for younger workers?
Budget
News
Politico | House Republican budget strategy collapsing
The central premise, as sold by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, was that Washington could wipe out deficits in 10 years and protect defense spending, all while embracing the lower appropriations caps dictated by sequestration.
Politico | House Republican budget strategy collapsing
The central premise, as sold by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, was that Washington could wipe out deficits in 10 years and protect defense spending, all while embracing the lower appropriations caps dictated by sequestration.
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