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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
FOX Business | Energy Boom a Windfall for Family Income
American families will earn more money in the coming years as dollars from the nation's oil and gas boom trickle down to the average person, consultant IHS said in a report released on Wednesday.
Politico | China drives uptick in U.S. trade deficit
The U.S. trade deficit with China topped $30 billion for the first time in July, boosting the United States’ overall trade gap after a sharp drop in June.
FOX Business | Global Economy Picks Up Steam
Euro zone businesses had their best month in over two years in August as orders increased for the first time since mid-2011 while growth in China's services sector hit a five-month high, underpinned by new orders and business optimism.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CNN Money | Global recovery no sure thing: OECD
Even as developed economies see improving growth figures and a rosier future, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned that the global recovery could still be thrown off track.
WSJ | Obama's Economy Hits His Voters Hardest
For better or worse, a truism of American politics is that voters vote their pocketbooks. Yet according to a new report on median household incomes by Sentier Research, in 2012 millions of American voters apparently cast ballots contrary to their economic self-interest.
Real Clear Markets | Scared American Workers Can Thank Confused Economists
Goldman Sachs is known for many things, and one of them is its grueling interview process. With so many of the best and brightest from the top colleges, universities and companies vying to work at the financial giant, it must carefully and yes - ruthlessly - pick its employees.
Mercatus | Four Key Questions on Housing Finance Reform
As Congress returns from its August recess and prepares to take up the issue of housing finance reform, the history of special-interest pleading and taxpayer bailouts will loom large.
AEI | The China-Korea-Japan FTA: The U.S. perspective
The proposed China-Japan-Korea (CJK) FTA, if it comes to fruition, will be a major economic accomplishment in its own right; but it will also constitute an important milestone and potential way station on the road to a region-wide FTA, embodied in previous proposals for an ASEAN+6 agreement and in the recently launched negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | Worried wells
Over the past month the price of Brent crude oil has risen by five dollars to $115 a barrel. The prospect of Western military intervention in Syria is one reason for the bump in prices, but not the only one.
Heritage Foundation | A Swedish (Economic) Lesson for President Obama in One Chart
President Obama is making the first ever bilateral visit to Sweden by a sitting U.S. President. As The Heritage Foundation and Swedish think tank Timbro discussed in a recent Google Hangout, the President should learn from Sweden that advancing economic freedom, not big-government policies, is the driver of economic dynamism.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
WSJ | More Employers Overhaul Health Benefits
This fall, tens of thousands of U.S. workers will learn that they're getting their health benefits next year in a radical new way: Their employers will give them a fixed sum of money and let them choose their plan from an online marketplace.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CATO | What Ruined Obama’s Credibility? Obamacare
As we debate intervening in Syria, there is a great deal of talk about possible damage to President Obama’s credibility abroad. But at least at home, Obamacare has already left that credibility rather diminished.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Don't trust your central bank? Bet against it.
Think you know more about the economy than central bankers? Now you can bet against them.
Market Watch | Bank of Canada leaves rates unchanged
The Bank of Canada, as expected, left its overnight rate target unchanged at 1% on Wednesday, while continuing to signal that the next policy move will likely be toward tighter monetary policy once the economic backdrop returns to normal.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Bloomberg | SEC Can Fix a Gap Between the Rich and the Rest
After a full year’s delay, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently lifted a ban on general solicitations for certain private securities offerings. Yet in doing so, the commission proposed a set of rules -- effective in late September -- that threaten to institutionalize the very ban that was supposed to be eliminated.
Real Clear Markets | Forget Tapering, and Get Ready For QE4
It is more likely, in view of the negative impact on the already weak U.S. economy arising from the higher interest rates resulting from taper talk, that the Fed will have to reverse itself (again) and start talking about "un-tapering" or QE4 at its December meeting.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Draghi Gets Another Chance to Push ECB’s Forward Guidance
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has struggled to convince financial markets that the forward guidance he unveiled two months ago has teeth.

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Wealthy New Yorkers Call De Blasio’s Tax Plan Offensive
When New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio first proposed taxing the rich so every child in the city could attend all-day preschool, it was October and he had support from fewer than 10 percent of Democrats in polls.

Employment

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Vital Signs: Northeast Lags in Job Demand
Jobseekers have a better chance of landing employment in areas with a greater demand for labor. Bright.com, an aggregator of job postings and resumes, calculated which cities had the most job openings per population in August.

Budget

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
LA Times | Five ways to think about the U.S. debt limit
Using the debt-limit vote as a political football is more than a stupid game; it can cost real money and destroy the fragile economic growth the U.S. is now having.
Mercatus | Despite New Estimates, Spending Continues to Grow over the Next 10 Years
The president’s recent midsession review of the FY 2014 budget revised the original budget estimates from April to account for economic, legislative, and other changes.