News
WSJ | U.S. Is Overtaking Russia as Largest Oil-and-Gas Producer
The U.S. is overtaking Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, a startling shift that is reshaping markets and eroding the clout of traditional energy-rich nations.
Bloomberg | Consumer Comfort in U.S. Retreats for First Time in a Month
Consumer confidence decreased for the first time in four weeks as Americans’ views of the economy deteriorated to the lowest level since May.
CNN Money | Investors bet on a U.S. default
Want to bet against the "full faith and credit" of the United States government? A few financial institutions are doing just that -- betting the government will default on its debt if Congress can't agree to raise the debt ceiling this month.
Bloomberg | Service Industries in U.S. Grow at Slower Pace Than Forecast
Service industries in the U.S. expanded in September at a slower pace than forecast, indicating a pause in the momentum of the biggest part of the economy before the federal government shut down.
WSJ | Government Shutdown Pinches Low-Income Aid Programs
The federal government's partial shutdown began pinching a number of aid programs, with preschool activities, welfare benefits and vouchers for infant formula all seeing cuts.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | How ObamaCare Wrecks the Work Ethic
A new wave of redistribution will arrive in America on Jan. 1, primarily thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The president's health-insurance plan forces those who hire, work and produce to pay full price for health care, while creating generous discounts for practically everyone else.
Real Clear Markets | Why Housing Markets Are Set To Tank Again
In mid-September, a CNN Money headline reassured investors: Our Long National Foreclosure Nightmare Is Over. Sounds great! Now we can finally relax and be glad that Henry Paulson, the Fed and the Big Bankers saved us from the apocalypse.
CATO | Shutdown Problems: Brought to You by Big Government
The federal government has shut down. And, as of this writing, no one knows exactly when it will reopen.
Blogs
Economist | What we know that is no longer so
Here's a funny post-script to the post I just put up on the most recent Free exchange column. In writing the post it occurred to me that I could add some additional detail on the costs of disability insurance.
Mercatus | Does Anyone Know the Net Benefits of Regulation?
In early August, I was invited to testify before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Library of Economics | The Error of Utilitarian Behavioral Economics
If you hang around economists long enough, you're bound to hear the word utility. They don't mean it in the original (at least 500 years old), usefulness sense of the word, as in the utility of electric power to wash and dry clothes. They mean in it in the late 19th century sense of "the instrinsic property of anything that leads an individual to choose it rather than something else" (Oxford English Dictionary).
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Health Care
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | The Obamacare deterrent for small business
The first of the major Obamacare implementation dates has come and gone, and for America’s small-business owners, the world looks much the same — only now, it’s more confusing and more expensive.
Mercatus | Paging Dr. Jobs
American health care has no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. No Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Burt Rutan, or Henry Ford. No innovator whose genius and sweat deliver the twin lightning bolts of cost-reduction and quality improvement across the broad landscape of health care. Why not? Either we answer that question soon and uncork the genie, or we consign our health care to a prolonged, unaffordable stagnation.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Report Reveals Obamacare’s Side Effects: Higher Costs, Fewer Jobs
What will Obamacare mean for American businesses? Higher costs, according to a report released yesterday from consultants at Mercer.
Washington Times | The Obamacare deterrent for small business
The first of the major Obamacare implementation dates has come and gone, and for America’s small-business owners, the world looks much the same — only now, it’s more confusing and more expensive.
Mercatus | Paging Dr. Jobs
American health care has no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. No Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Burt Rutan, or Henry Ford. No innovator whose genius and sweat deliver the twin lightning bolts of cost-reduction and quality improvement across the broad landscape of health care. Why not? Either we answer that question soon and uncork the genie, or we consign our health care to a prolonged, unaffordable stagnation.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Report Reveals Obamacare’s Side Effects: Higher Costs, Fewer Jobs
What will Obamacare mean for American businesses? Higher costs, according to a report released yesterday from consultants at Mercer.
Monetary
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | We Don't Need 'Tapering,' We Need Full Termination Of QE3
Although philosopher George Santayana died in 1952, he seemed to understand the Federal Reserve’s current quantitative easing (QE) program. After all, it is Santayana that said, “Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.”
Blogs
WSJ | Taper Scorecard: What Fed Officials Are Saying
Among the biggest questions at the Federal Reserve these days is when it will begin scaling back, or “tapering,” its $85 billion-per-month in bond purchases. Fed officials are divided over when to start, ranging from some who want to continue until they see more economic gains to those who opposed the program from the start and are eager to start winding it down.
Forbes | We Don't Need 'Tapering,' We Need Full Termination Of QE3
Although philosopher George Santayana died in 1952, he seemed to understand the Federal Reserve’s current quantitative easing (QE) program. After all, it is Santayana that said, “Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.”
Blogs
WSJ | Taper Scorecard: What Fed Officials Are Saying
Among the biggest questions at the Federal Reserve these days is when it will begin scaling back, or “tapering,” its $85 billion-per-month in bond purchases. Fed officials are divided over when to start, ranging from some who want to continue until they see more economic gains to those who opposed the program from the start and are eager to start winding it down.
Taxes
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Here Comes the Paper Tax
Various government agencies have harangued Americans for years to reduce our use of paper products to save the planet. Evidently, we obliged too well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now laying the groundwork for a national campaign to promote the use of paper.
CATO | Is Today – the Anniversary of the Income Tax – the Worst Day in American History?
But allow me to suggest that today, October 3, should be a candidate for America’s worst day. Why? Because on this day in 1913, one of America’s worst Presidents, Woodrow Wilson, signed into law the Revenue Act of 1913, which imposed the income tax.
Heritage Foundation | Here Comes the Paper Tax
Various government agencies have harangued Americans for years to reduce our use of paper products to save the planet. Evidently, we obliged too well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now laying the groundwork for a national campaign to promote the use of paper.
CATO | Is Today – the Anniversary of the Income Tax – the Worst Day in American History?
But allow me to suggest that today, October 3, should be a candidate for America’s worst day. Why? Because on this day in 1913, one of America’s worst Presidents, Woodrow Wilson, signed into law the Revenue Act of 1913, which imposed the income tax.
Employment
News
Fox Business | Planned Layoffs Fall 20% in September
The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell 20 percent in September, even as cuts in the healthcare sector more than doubled from the prior month, a report on Thursday showed.
Bloomberg | Jobless Claims in U.S. Rose Less Than Forecast Last Week
Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating U.S. employers were maintaining staff counts in the days leading up to the government shutdown.
Bloomberg | United Technologies Sees 5,000 Jobs at Risk in Shutdown
United Technologies Corp. (UTX), a supplier of helicopters and jet engines to the U.S. military, said an extended government shutdown would force furloughs of as many as 5,000 workers.
Econ Comments & Analysis
US News | The Rise of Semi-Retirement
Switching directly from a full-time job that consumes most of your waking hours to retirement can be a very abrupt change. More than a third of working Americans say they would like to semi-retire, or cut back their hours, before retiring completely, according to a recent HSBC and Cicero Group survey. Workers have both personal and financial reasons for preferring to gradually transition into their retirement years.
Fox Business | Planned Layoffs Fall 20% in September
The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell 20 percent in September, even as cuts in the healthcare sector more than doubled from the prior month, a report on Thursday showed.
Bloomberg | Jobless Claims in U.S. Rose Less Than Forecast Last Week
Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating U.S. employers were maintaining staff counts in the days leading up to the government shutdown.
Bloomberg | United Technologies Sees 5,000 Jobs at Risk in Shutdown
United Technologies Corp. (UTX), a supplier of helicopters and jet engines to the U.S. military, said an extended government shutdown would force furloughs of as many as 5,000 workers.
Econ Comments & Analysis
US News | The Rise of Semi-Retirement
Switching directly from a full-time job that consumes most of your waking hours to retirement can be a very abrupt change. More than a third of working Americans say they would like to semi-retire, or cut back their hours, before retiring completely, according to a recent HSBC and Cicero Group survey. Workers have both personal and financial reasons for preferring to gradually transition into their retirement years.
Budget
News
CNN Money | Debt ceiling: Countdown to default
Congress is sowing the seeds of a debt ceiling crisis: If lawmakers don't raise the limit on federal borrowing soon, they will put the nation at risk of defaulting on some of its legal obligations.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | Treasury Says U.S. Default Has Potential to Be Catastrophic
A default caused by Congress failing to raise the $16.7 trillion federal debt limit “has the potential to be catastrophic,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a report today.
Real Clear Markets | Raising the Debt Ceiling Is No Panacea, Because Eventually It's Moot
With Congress deadlocked in a debate over funding for the president's $1.4 trillion new health care entitlement, the fiscal year has concluded with no agreement on a continuing resolution to finance federal government activities. The latest crisis has prompted a public uproar, but it should come as no surprise. Washington has utterly failed to demonstrate any fiscal governance in the face of a budget crisis that has been looming for years.
WSJ | The Treacherous Politics of the Fiscal Showdown
They said they wanted to avoid it, but at the stroke of midnight Monday, four people got the government shutdown they wanted.
AEI | Don't wait on the debt limit
Much is in flux in Washington this week. But two important realities have remained constant, whether certain elements in the GOP accept them or not: We must not default on the federal debt, and we shouldn't wait until we're on the brink of default to raise the debt ceiling. Here's why.
CNN Money | Debt ceiling: Countdown to default
Congress is sowing the seeds of a debt ceiling crisis: If lawmakers don't raise the limit on federal borrowing soon, they will put the nation at risk of defaulting on some of its legal obligations.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | Treasury Says U.S. Default Has Potential to Be Catastrophic
A default caused by Congress failing to raise the $16.7 trillion federal debt limit “has the potential to be catastrophic,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a report today.
Real Clear Markets | Raising the Debt Ceiling Is No Panacea, Because Eventually It's Moot
With Congress deadlocked in a debate over funding for the president's $1.4 trillion new health care entitlement, the fiscal year has concluded with no agreement on a continuing resolution to finance federal government activities. The latest crisis has prompted a public uproar, but it should come as no surprise. Washington has utterly failed to demonstrate any fiscal governance in the face of a budget crisis that has been looming for years.
WSJ | The Treacherous Politics of the Fiscal Showdown
They said they wanted to avoid it, but at the stroke of midnight Monday, four people got the government shutdown they wanted.
AEI | Don't wait on the debt limit
Much is in flux in Washington this week. But two important realities have remained constant, whether certain elements in the GOP accept them or not: We must not default on the federal debt, and we shouldn't wait until we're on the brink of default to raise the debt ceiling. Here's why.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)