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Friday, July 26, 2013

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Increases to Six-Year High July
Consumer confidence unexpectedly increased in July to the highest level in six years as Americans’ views of their finances improved.
National Journal | The Surprisingly Simple Solution to Underwater Mortgages
Step One: Buy delinquent mortgages. Step Two: Actually work with homeowners to modify loans.
CNN Money | CBO: Cancel spending cuts now, boost economy in short run
The economy could get a modest boost if Congress cancels the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Bloomberg | China Cuts Capacity in Some Industries to Reshape Economy
China ordered more than 1,400 companies in 19 industries to cut excess production capacity this year, part of efforts to shift toward slower, more-sustainable economic growth.
AEI | Germany's 5 awkward economic truths
An unfortunate characteristic of modern day electoral campaigns is that they rarely provide the electorate with a frank discussion of the major policy issues.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Forbes | Economic Success Isn't Achieved Just By Working Hard, Mr. President
Like lamenting against your ongoing inability to levitate, as hard as you work at it, you’re going to be lamenting for a long time, Mr. President, if you think the lack of economic progress by the middle class is going to change under your policies.   Such will be the case when you fundamentally fail to understand where economic success comes from.
Fiscal Times | Why Detroit’s Economic Ills Are Not Contagious
Don’t believe the hype that Detroit’s filing for bankruptcy last week will trigger a wave of municipal copycats.
Fortune | The rise of the mooching millennial
Until recently, hedge funds and private equity firms drove the U.S. housing market's recovery, buying a shrinking pool of foreclosed and distressed homes to rent. It seemed like a lucrative investment, given that rents were rising while homeownership fell to record lows.
Real Clear Markets | As A Society We're Better Off For Detroit's Collapse
Owing largely to quirks in the inherent physics of electrified communication, largely related to power issues and signal decay, there developed a two-stage system of telephony inside the United States.
Washington Times | Lowered expectations for the Obama economy
In the fifth year of Barack Obama’s presidency, America’s job-starved economy remains weak, insecure and undernourished.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Library of Economics | Paul Krugman: The Average Family is Materially Much Better Off
This conclusion is controversial. Some people are upset because any reduction of inflation estimates will reduce Social Security benefits, which are indexed to the CPI. Others are upset because a revision of recent price history would mean abandoning a worldview on which they have staked their reputations.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Michael Burgess warns of Obamacare enrollment fallout
Overeager Obamacare boosters could put the law’s first customers in a tight spot, a House Republican warned Thursday.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Surgeons Eyed Over Deals With Medical-Device Makers
Ten months after an Afghan-born surgeon named Aria Sabit arrived in Ventura, Calif., local hospital staffers noticed he suddenly developed a preference for an obscure brand of spinal implants for many of his surgeries. Soon his volume of operations increased, with sometimes-tragic results.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Dollar coin advocates renew push to replace dollar bill
People who want to replace the flimsy dollar bill with a sturdier metal coin are pushing their cause again.
Market Watch | Japan registers inflation for June; yen slips
Japan's consumer prices managed to register mild inflation in June compared with a year earlier, data out Friday from the Finance Ministry showed. The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh-food costs, rose 0.4% from June 2012, though it was unchanged compared to May's levels.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | The new monetary ideology
Quantitative easing, which almost no one had heard of five years ago, is the great new discovery in macroeconomic policy. Policymakers put their faith in it as the engine of recovery; variations in the quantity of money supplied by the central bank has graduated from an emergency measure to a permanent tool.

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Tax reform proposals to be secret for 50 years
Tax reform is apparently so treacherous for senators these days that they require the utmost protection from the public -- half a century's worth.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Reid to Tax Reform: Drop Dead
'We need tax reform," said Harry Reid on Thursday, by which he meant we don't need tax reform. The Senate Majority Leader effectively killed a rewrite of the tax code for this Congress by decreeing that it must be conducted "under the total understanding that it can't be revenue-neutral.
CRS | Federal Tax Benefits for Manufacturing: Current Law, Legislation in the 113th Congress, and Arguments For and Against Federal Assistance
Sparked in part by public statements by President Obama in favor of greater federal support for advanced manufacturing, a lively debate over whether additional federal assistance should be provided for manufacturing is taking place among policy analysts and lawmakers.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
CATO | Entrepreneurs and Capital Gains Taxes
The higher capital gains taxes that were recently enacted risk killing off future Apples and Amazons, which we will need to power tomorrow’s economic growth.

Employment

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare Continues to Cut Workers Hours
A Washington Post front-page story reported what many of us already know: The employer mandate in Obamacare is causing employers to cut workers’ hours as well as the number of workers they employ.

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Fiscal Armageddon could remake Hill in 2014 elections
The 2014 midterm season is about to heat up – and President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies are eager to tag the GOP as the root cause of Washington dysfunction. The Republicans say they can ill afford another game of high-stakes brinksmanship in the looming negotiations over raising the debt ceiling and funding the government.
CNN Money | CBO: Cancel spending cuts now, boost economy in short run
The economy could get a modest boost if Congress cancels the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Bloomberg | Greece Wins 2.5 Billion-Euro Aid Loan, Buying Time in Crisis
Greece won the release of a 2.5 billion-euro ($3.3 billion) loan installment to tide it through the coming weeks, as European governments put off debate over Greek debt relief until after Germany’s election in September.
CNBC | Municipal bonds 'hemorrhage' $1.2 billion on Detroit fears
Municipal bond funds saw outflows of $1.2 billion in the week ending July 24, on concern that Detroit's filing for bankruptcy - the largest in U.S. history - will set an important precedent and more cities could follow suit. It was the ninth consecutive week of outflows from the fund type.