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Monday, September 16, 2013

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Manufacturing in New York Area Expands Less Than Forecast
Manufacturing (EMPRGBCI) in the New York region expanded less than forecast in September even as orders and shipments picked up, while factories’ outlooks improved.
CNBC | Thrifty habits seen dying hard even as economy lifts
Consumers are sticking to frugal shopping habits developed in the recession even as developed economies show signs of recovery, suggesting some behavior changes could be permanent, industry executives say.
CNN Money | Obama admits 95% of income gains gone to top 1%
President Obama has been loud and clear about his fight against income inequality, but he admitted that the rich have fared far better than the poor during his time in the White House.
FOX Business | Housing Market: 5 Years Later
It’s been five years since the financial system collapsed and the housing bubble burst, and it's been a long road to recovery. The housing market has only been on the mend over the last year, and according to experts, it still has some healing to do.
Bloomberg | Industrial Production in U.S. Rises by Most in Six Months
Industrial production rose in August by the most in six months, indicating U.S. manufacturing (IPMGCHNG) will contribute more to the expansion.
CNN Money | Your guide to a government shutdown
If Congress can't agree on at least a short-term funding bill that President Obama is willing to sign, many functions of the federal government -- but not all -- will be shut down indefinitely on Oct. 1.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Fortune | Don't bet on a European recovery yet
U.S. investors poured $65 billion into Europe during the first half of the year with the hope that the continent is poised to rebound. Is it?
Washington Post | Five years on, the financial crisis still confounds
Unhappy birthday. Five years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, we still lack a true understanding of what caused the financial crisis and Great Recession. Oh, there are standard stories from left and right. Liberals blame a naive faith in free markets, deregulation and Wall Street greed. Conservatives slam government: lax monetary policy and ruinous home-lending by Fannie and Freddie.
Politico | America's patent problem
America’s patent system, when operating as intended, is the envy of the world. It fuels the technological advances that invigorate our economy, create jobs and benefit American consumers.
National Journal | Obama on the Economy 5 Years Later: 'We're Not Near Where We Need to Be'
Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the coming-out party for the Great Recession, the president says there's more he can do.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | The meaning of Lehman (take 1)
Five years ago the world was stumbling into a chasm. Of course the signal fact about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the financial and political chaos that followed was that it led to the most significant real-economy disaster of the postwar era. Panic on Wall Street was a wrenching spectacle.
CNBC | Remember 'Lehman Weekend': Don't let up on reforms
The "Lehman weekend" five years ago has taken on symbolic importance as the fulcrum of the financial crisis, but the roots of the crisis were broad and deep—planted in years of unconstrained excess on Wall Street and prolonged complacency in Washington and financial capitals worldwide.
Economist | Did living standards improve during the Industrial Revolution?
As we showed in a previous blog post, Europe went through a period of astonishing growth after about 1760. The level of income that Europe has today could not have been reached without the Industrial Revolution.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Obamacare D-Day becomes a soft launch
For months all eyes have been on October 1 — the first day people can sign up for Obamacare. But as that day approaches, many people working on the nuts and bolts of the health law are tamping down any expectations of a sign-up stampede.
National Journal | Health Literacy Could Reduce Medicare Expenses
MedPAC, the Congressional advisory committee on Medicare, discussed how to get patients more involved in their health decisions.
WSJ | Health Law Faces Skepticism
New poll results show the depth of the Obama administration's challenge on the eve of the rollout of the federal health law's core provisions, as many Americans say they don't understand the law and don't think it will help them.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Heritage Foundation | Interpreting Obamacare’s Premium Estimates for 2014
In recent weeks, several organizations have released studies projecting premiums in Obamacare’s new exchanges next year. However, many of these studies suffer from the same flaw: They ignore or minimize the fact that, due to Obamacare, individuals will be forced to buy levels of health insurance that they may not need or want.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare Is NOT Saving Americans Money
Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report that claims to highlight how Obamacare is working for Americans—but in reality, it actually shows how the law has fallen short of candidate Obama’s promises.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | The taper is coming. Get over it
The Federal Reserve will wrap up a two-day policymaking meeting this Wednesday, and Fed watchers are obsessing over the timing of when the central bank may begin to slow its bond-buying program.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Bloomberg | Fed Leader Doubt Erodes Low-Rate Message as QE Taper Looms
Federal Reserve officials will gather in their Washington board room this week to decide on policies that will unfold over the next two to three years without knowing who will lead the institution during that time.
Real Clear Markets | The Economy Will Survive Normal Interest Rates Just Fine
On November 25, 2008 the Federal Reserve Board announced the beginning of quantitative easing, what we now know as QE1. The next day, the rate on ten year U.S. government bonds dropped below 3 percent for the first time since the 1950s.
Fortune | By every measure, the big banks are bigger
One third of all business loans this year were made by Bank of America. Wells Fargo funds nearly a quarter of all mortgage loans. And held in the vaults of JPMorgan Chase is $1.3 trillion, which is 12% of our collective cash, including the payrolls of many thousands of companies, or enough to buy 47,636,496,885 of these NFL branded toaster ovens. Thanks for your business!

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Banks lock out Americans over new tax law
Americans, take your money elsewhere! That's what banks around the world have been telling their U.S. customers, as they try to avoid having to comply with a new tax law due to come into force next year.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Politico | Tax reform in new danger
The Republican push to dismantle Obamacare risks reducing another GOP priority — tax reform — to collateral damage.
AEI | BEPS and the law of unintended consequences
The OECD’s recent release of the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting is an important milestone in its overall project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Wanted: Jobs for the New 'Lost' Generation
Most have little memory of the financial crisis itself, which struck while they were still in high school. But they are all too familiar with its aftermath: the crippling recession, which made it all but impossible for many young people to get a first foothold in the job market, and the achingly slow recovery that has left the prosperity of their parents' generation out of reach—perhaps
CNBC | Employment gap between rich and poor highest on record
The gap in employment rates between America's highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
CATO | The Fight against Low-Wage Work
In the case of the District’s proposed law, we won’t have to wait for future effects. The target of the legislation, Wal-Mart, is about to open six stores in the District of Columbia, where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent. But the company says it won’t open three of those stores if it is forced to pay a minimum wage 50 percent higher than other retailers.

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | House Republican leaders: Debt hike is the better fight
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and their allies are instead privately urging rank and file to forgo a clash over government funding — and a possible government shutdown — and instead dig in against Obama and the Democratic Senate when the debt ceiling needs to be lifted sometime next month.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Freep | How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young
Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s financial history back to the 1950s shows that its elected officials and others charged with managing its finances repeatedly failed — or refused — to make the tough economic and political decisions that might have saved the city from financial ruin.
Washington Times | Budget blarney
President Obama is a master of fiscal discipline, or so he says. “Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years,” he told an audience the other day at Knox College in Illinois. It is true that the federal deficit is on track to be the lowest since Mr. Obama took office, but there’s a catch.