News
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Economic Confidence Jumps to Highest in 15 Months
Economic confidence in the euro area improved for a third month in July, reaching the highest in 15 months and adding to indications the 17-nation currency bloc is emerging from a record-long recession.
CNN Money | Home prices keep soaring
Home prices continued to gain steam in May according to a closely-watched reading, even as mortgage rates climbed.
Bloomberg | Consumer Confidence Index in U.S. Fell to 80.3 in July
Confidence among U.S. consumers declined more than forecast in July after reaching a five-year high a month earlier as Americans grew more pessimistic about the outlook for the economy and employment.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | Reform the ethanol mandate
The federal corn ethanol mandate is prima facie evidence that the law of unintended consequences is always in effect.
Businessweek | The Whole World Is Getting Richer, and That's Good News
This month the most accurate source for global data on the size of the world’s economies got a makeover. As a result, we have measures of economic growth and relative income across countries that are better than ever. These numbers suggest something surprising: a world of ubiquitously increasing wealth, where predictions of Malthusian traps and permanent poverty look increasingly archaic.
Fortune | Why the housing market could grow even if the economy slows
Home prices across America's 20 major cities in May climbed 12.2% higher from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index, a widely watched gauge of the health of the U.S. housing market. This number was higher than most expected and the biggest annual gain since March 2006.
Mercatus | Regulatory Process, Regulatory Reform, and the Quality of Regulatory Impact Analysis
Regulatory impact analysis (RIA) has become a key element of the regulatory process in developed and developing nations alike. A thorough RIA identifies the potential market failure or other systemic problem a regulation is intended to solve, develops a variety of alternative solutions, and assesses the benefits and costs of those alternatives.
Heritage Foundation | A Guide to Understanding International Comparisons of Economic Mobility
International comparisons of economic mobility can be very helpful both in understanding patterns in one’s own country and in assessing social conditions and policy impacts, but they can also be misleading when used to rank mobility or economic opportunity in various countries.
Blogs
WSJ | A Look at Case-Shiller by Metro Area
Home prices extended a winning streak of year-over-year gains and two cities surpassed their prefinancial crisis peaks, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller indexes.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Health Care
Blogs
CATO | Obamacare: House Hearing on the IRS’s Illegal Taxing, Borrowing & Spending
As Jonathan Adler and I detail in our Health Matrix article, “Taxation Without Representation: The Illegal IRS Rule to Expand Tax Credits Under the PPACA,” the Obama administration is attempting to rescue Obamacare from oblivion by literally taxing, borrowing, and spending more than $700 billion without congressional authorization. In a recent letter to the editor of the Washington Post, I explain how these illegal taxes are already hurting workers.
Heritage Foundation | How the Obamacare “Honor System” Will Encourage Fraud
Earlier this month, the Obama Administration—in a 600-plus page regulation—announced that for 2014, Obamacare insurance subsidies will essentially operate on the “honor system.” This will create incentives for fraud, as some applicants may report an income that is actually lower than their true income in order to qualify for the taxpayer-funded subsidy.
CATO | Obamacare: House Hearing on the IRS’s Illegal Taxing, Borrowing & Spending
As Jonathan Adler and I detail in our Health Matrix article, “Taxation Without Representation: The Illegal IRS Rule to Expand Tax Credits Under the PPACA,” the Obama administration is attempting to rescue Obamacare from oblivion by literally taxing, borrowing, and spending more than $700 billion without congressional authorization. In a recent letter to the editor of the Washington Post, I explain how these illegal taxes are already hurting workers.
Heritage Foundation | How the Obamacare “Honor System” Will Encourage Fraud
Earlier this month, the Obama Administration—in a 600-plus page regulation—announced that for 2014, Obamacare insurance subsidies will essentially operate on the “honor system.” This will create incentives for fraud, as some applicants may report an income that is actually lower than their true income in order to qualify for the taxpayer-funded subsidy.
Monetary
News
Bloomberg | Bank Revenues Surge on Trading Over What Fed Will Do
Diverging monetary policies are creating ideal conditions for banks to make money from trading currencies as Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say rising volatility is boosting earnings.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | End the Fed as we know it
Of possible Fed candidates, only former Obama White House economist Christina Romer has explicitly endorsed N.G.D.P. targeting, though it’s believed Janet Yellen is also a fan. Larry Summers, on the other hand, seems a bit dubious of Fed quantitative easing programs and the potency of monetary policy when rates are superlow.
WSJ | The Near-Zero Interest Rate Trap
The conventional critique of the Federal Reserve's policies of near-zero interest rates and massive monetary expansion is that they risk kindling excess aggregate demand and high inflation. Yet inflation world-wide remains low, and some major trading partners of the United States, such as Japan and now China, are worried about deflation. China's Producer Price Index fell 2.7% in June, the 16th consecutive monthly decline.
NBER | Deflation Risk
We study the nature of deflation risk by extracting the objective distribution of inflation from the market prices of inflation swaps and options.
American | Big Bureaucracy: The CFPB Turns 2
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is everything that both proponents and critics thought it would be, and that’s not a good thing.
Heritage Foundation | Damaging Dodd-Frank is Making Things Worse
It’s been three years since the passage of Dodd-Frank, Washington’s response to the housing market collapse, the failure of major financial firms, and the resulting shock to the economy in 2008. Are Americans better off today because of it?
Blogs
Market Watch | New York Times endorses Yellen for Fed post
The race for the top Federal Reserve post between former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen is looking more like a political campaign by the day.
Bloomberg | Bank Revenues Surge on Trading Over What Fed Will Do
Diverging monetary policies are creating ideal conditions for banks to make money from trading currencies as Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say rising volatility is boosting earnings.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | End the Fed as we know it
Of possible Fed candidates, only former Obama White House economist Christina Romer has explicitly endorsed N.G.D.P. targeting, though it’s believed Janet Yellen is also a fan. Larry Summers, on the other hand, seems a bit dubious of Fed quantitative easing programs and the potency of monetary policy when rates are superlow.
WSJ | The Near-Zero Interest Rate Trap
The conventional critique of the Federal Reserve's policies of near-zero interest rates and massive monetary expansion is that they risk kindling excess aggregate demand and high inflation. Yet inflation world-wide remains low, and some major trading partners of the United States, such as Japan and now China, are worried about deflation. China's Producer Price Index fell 2.7% in June, the 16th consecutive monthly decline.
NBER | Deflation Risk
We study the nature of deflation risk by extracting the objective distribution of inflation from the market prices of inflation swaps and options.
American | Big Bureaucracy: The CFPB Turns 2
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is everything that both proponents and critics thought it would be, and that’s not a good thing.
Heritage Foundation | Damaging Dodd-Frank is Making Things Worse
It’s been three years since the passage of Dodd-Frank, Washington’s response to the housing market collapse, the failure of major financial firms, and the resulting shock to the economy in 2008. Are Americans better off today because of it?
Blogs
Market Watch | New York Times endorses Yellen for Fed post
The race for the top Federal Reserve post between former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen is looking more like a political campaign by the day.
Taxes
News
Politico | Max Baucus tax reform push at risk
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s effort to cement his legislative legacy with an overhaul of the Tax Code is at risk of faltering.
National Journal | Lawmakers, Lobbyists Push for New Tax Breaks Through Secret Process
The Senate's top tax writers' "blank slate" approach to tax reform was supposed to give Congress the chance to throw out all tax breaks and start fresh. Instead, lawmakers and lobbyists are using their confidential and off-the-record testimony and letters of support to ask for brand new or expanded tax breaks in addition to the old.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Obama to call for business tax overhaul
President Barack Obama on Tuesday will call for a restructuring of business taxes to generate revenue to fund job-creation programs.
Washington Times | The last days of the IRS
There has been much discussion about which banks and other financial institutions are “too big to fail.” In reality, no institution is too big to fail, including any private company or political entity, whether it is Detroit or the former Soviet Union. The more relevant question is, which institutions are “too big to succeed”?
Mercatus | Some Measures of the Progressiveness of the U.S. Tax Code
In 2013, federal income tax nonpayers were distributed throughout the earnings spectrum, with 32.2 percent of tax returns reporting less than $10,000 paying no income tax, and 33.0 percent of those making between $10,000 and $20,000 paying no income tax; the remaining 34.8 percent of Americans not paying income taxes were distributed throughout all income levels.
Politico | Max Baucus tax reform push at risk
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s effort to cement his legislative legacy with an overhaul of the Tax Code is at risk of faltering.
National Journal | Lawmakers, Lobbyists Push for New Tax Breaks Through Secret Process
The Senate's top tax writers' "blank slate" approach to tax reform was supposed to give Congress the chance to throw out all tax breaks and start fresh. Instead, lawmakers and lobbyists are using their confidential and off-the-record testimony and letters of support to ask for brand new or expanded tax breaks in addition to the old.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Obama to call for business tax overhaul
President Barack Obama on Tuesday will call for a restructuring of business taxes to generate revenue to fund job-creation programs.
Washington Times | The last days of the IRS
There has been much discussion about which banks and other financial institutions are “too big to fail.” In reality, no institution is too big to fail, including any private company or political entity, whether it is Detroit or the former Soviet Union. The more relevant question is, which institutions are “too big to succeed”?
Mercatus | Some Measures of the Progressiveness of the U.S. Tax Code
In 2013, federal income tax nonpayers were distributed throughout the earnings spectrum, with 32.2 percent of tax returns reporting less than $10,000 paying no income tax, and 33.0 percent of those making between $10,000 and $20,000 paying no income tax; the remaining 34.8 percent of Americans not paying income taxes were distributed throughout all income levels.
Employment
News
Gallup | In U.S., Fewer Young Adults Holding Full-Time Jobs in 2013
Fewer Americans aged 18 to 29 worked full time for an employer in June 2013 (43.6%) than did so in June 2012 (47.0%), according to Gallup's Payroll to Population employment rate. The P2P rate for young adults is also down from 45.8% in June 2011 and 46.3% in June 2010.
Bloomberg | Euro Jobless Rate Seen at Record Even as Recession Ends
Euro-region unemployment probably stayed at a record high in June even as the economy emerged from the longest recession since the single currency’s creation, economists said.
WSJ | Cities Begin Hiring Again
Cities across the U.S. are starting to hire new teachers, firefighters and police officers as a deep and prolonged slide in local-government employment appears to have bottomed out four years after the recession ended.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | America's hourly wage battle heats up
Thousands of low-wage workers in several cities are planning a walkout this week to demand bigger paychecks.
Gallup | In U.S., Fewer Young Adults Holding Full-Time Jobs in 2013
Fewer Americans aged 18 to 29 worked full time for an employer in June 2013 (43.6%) than did so in June 2012 (47.0%), according to Gallup's Payroll to Population employment rate. The P2P rate for young adults is also down from 45.8% in June 2011 and 46.3% in June 2010.
Bloomberg | Euro Jobless Rate Seen at Record Even as Recession Ends
Euro-region unemployment probably stayed at a record high in June even as the economy emerged from the longest recession since the single currency’s creation, economists said.
WSJ | Cities Begin Hiring Again
Cities across the U.S. are starting to hire new teachers, firefighters and police officers as a deep and prolonged slide in local-government employment appears to have bottomed out four years after the recession ended.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | America's hourly wage battle heats up
Thousands of low-wage workers in several cities are planning a walkout this week to demand bigger paychecks.
Budget
News
Politico | Is a grand bargain out of reach?
They’ve been wined and dined by President Barack Obama, spoken repeatedly with the White House chief of staff and met privately in the Capitol.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Investors | Sorry, Secretary Lew, But Soaring Debt Is A Real Crisis — Not A 'False' One
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew calls concerns over federal debt a "false crisis." Like someone falling out of an airplane who refuses to realize he'll soon hit the ground, Lew is deluding himself — and us.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Student Loans: College Costs Will Continue to Rise
Last week, the Senate passed a bill that would peg interest rates on federal student loans to Washington’s cost of borrowing (the Treasury rate) plus 2.05 percent. The bill also caps interest rates at 8.25 percent in the event they rise in the coming years. The House has praised the move, meaning it is likely to become the law.
Politico | Is a grand bargain out of reach?
They’ve been wined and dined by President Barack Obama, spoken repeatedly with the White House chief of staff and met privately in the Capitol.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Investors | Sorry, Secretary Lew, But Soaring Debt Is A Real Crisis — Not A 'False' One
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew calls concerns over federal debt a "false crisis." Like someone falling out of an airplane who refuses to realize he'll soon hit the ground, Lew is deluding himself — and us.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Student Loans: College Costs Will Continue to Rise
Last week, the Senate passed a bill that would peg interest rates on federal student loans to Washington’s cost of borrowing (the Treasury rate) plus 2.05 percent. The bill also caps interest rates at 8.25 percent in the event they rise in the coming years. The House has praised the move, meaning it is likely to become the law.
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