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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | OECD cuts world growth forecast
Another month, another downgrade for the world economy, this time from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Bloomberg | German Investor Confidence Rises for a Fourth Month
German investor confidence rose to the highest level in more than four years, signaling that the economic recovery in Europe’s largest economy remains on track even after a third-quarter slowdown.
CNN Money | U.S., JPMorgan near $13 billion settlement
The Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase are nearing completion of a $13 billion settlement related to the bank's past mortgage practices, and a final deal is expected as soon as Tuesday, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Fortune | Welcome to the 4% return market
The stock market probably isn't in a bubble, but there's a bigger risk you need to consider: That buying now will mean much lower returns over the next few years.
Real Clear Markets | Will Congress Finally Kill Ethanol and Wind Energy?
The Environmental Protection Agency finally saw sense on Friday and announced a reduction in the amount of ethanol that refiners are required to blend into gasoline in 2014. Will Congress show equal sense and allow the wind tax credit to expire at the end of 2013?
Washington Times | Fracturing Obama’s oil spin
With the debris of his health care scheme falling like autumn leaves, President Obama is looking for news, any news, to suggest that his White House is doing something, anything, right. He landed on the most unlikely candidate last week. He’s taking credit for the surge in the production of oil, which exceeded imports for the first time in 18 years.
CRS | Infrastructure Banks and Debt Finance to Support Surface Transportation Investment
This report discusses current federal programs that support the use of debt finance and private investment to build and rebuild highways and public transportation. It also considers legislative options intended to encourage greater infrastructure financing in the future.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Which U.S. Cities Have Economies Bigger Than Entire Countries?
U.S. cities experienced slowing growth last year, according a report from the Conference of Mayors, but many of them still have bigger economies than entire countries.
WSJ | More Seniors Living With Their Children, but Don’t Blame Recession
More seniors are living with their children these days, but don’t blame the slow U.S. economy. Blame demographics.
Café Hayek | Inequality in two graphs
I have written many times that the subsidies to Wall Street and its employees have distorted economic outcomes for a handful of folks relative to the rest of us. So I want to start by pointing out that there is at least one source of inequality that is destructive to democracy and capitalism.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
National Journal | More Early Warning Signs of Obamacare Site Issues
Another document released by House investigators shows early warning signs of HealthCare.gov's readiness in jeopardy.
CNN Money | Missing from Obamacare: Working & middle class
Obamacare is intended to make health care affordable for the masses. But so far, most of those who have signed up are paying full price.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | No Bailouts for ObamaCare
With every passing day, ObamaCare's flaws are being exposed in painful ways for the American people. What started as a broken website—and nonexistent Spanish one—is now snowballing into a full-scale disaster that makes it increasingly clear this law can't be fixed.
FOX Business | The Unaffordable Care Act
President Barack Obama has said this:“This is the most transparent Administration in history.” The health-care law “does not grow the deficit by a single dime.”

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Yellen Nomination for Fed Chairman to Get Vote This Week
Janet Yellen’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve is scheduled for a Senate Banking Committee vote this week, advancing her confirmation.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Fed Official Says Big Banks Need Higher Capital Levels
Very large banks that count broker-dealer operations as an important part of their business need to hold higher levels of capital to reduce the risk these firms pose to the broader financial system, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said Monday.
Washington Post | Banks aren’t the bad guys
Economic historians debate the causes of the Great Depression — from the gold standard to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — but few assign much blame to criminal fraud.
Washington Times | The failed Fed
“I wouldn’t start here if I were you,” is the punch line of an old Irish joke, which monetary scholar Kevin Dowd cites to illustrate the deeper and deeper hole the Federal Reserve is getting us into.
Real Clear Markets | A New Chapter Begins In 'Too Big To Fail'
On November 14, 2013 Moody's Investors Services made an important announcement. They reviewed their credit ratings assessments on the eight largest US banks and "removed all uplift from US government support in the ratings for bank holding company debt." This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the too big to fail issue.
CATO | Europe’s Bank Money Blues
Well, it’s official, the economic talking head establishment has declared war on Germany. The opening shots in this battle were fired by none other than the United States Treasury Department, which had the audacity to blame Germany for a weak Eurozone recovery in its semi-annual foreign exchange report.
Heritage Foundation | Yellen Hearing Exposes Fed’s Regulatory Fault Lines
Janet Yellen, President Obama’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, told the Senate Banking Committee on November 14 that she is prepared to exercise a full range of regulatory “tools” to alter the actions of major financial institutions.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Fed’s Plosser Objects to Open Ended Asset Purchases
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser on Monday said the central bank should set a fixed amount for its bond-buying program, rather than trying to fine tune asset purchases based on month-to-month variations in the economy.

Taxes

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation | Tax Increases Really Hurt Growth and Jobs
Some lawmakers, led by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray (D–WA), are seeking to raise taxes in the budget conference to replace the modest spending reductions referred to as sequestration. They say that spending cuts hurt growth and jobs.

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
FOX Business | U.S. Labor Costs Point To Still-Benign Inflation
U.S. labor costs rose marginally in the third quarter, pointing to tame wage inflation that should allow the Federal Reserve to maintain its bond-buying program to stimulate the economy.
CNN Money | Tech firms now hiring more women than men
A curious thing has happened in the tech world. In an industry that has long been considered a boys club, suddenly firms are hiring more women than men.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Latin Migrants Shift Sights From U.S. to Neighbors
It sounds like the typical American dream for an immigrant: Each month, Marco Antonio Serna sends $500 to his parents, wife and 17-year-old daughter back in Colombia. Except Mr. Serna, 43 years old, didn't migrate to the U.S. for work; he went to Chile, where he is employed at a small casino outside Santiago.
NY Post | Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report
Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.
NBER | Enforcement and Immigrant Location Choice
This paper investigates the effect of local immigration enforcement regimes on the migration decisions of the foreign born.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Library of Economics | Bartender, Cashier, Cook, Janitor, Security Guard, Waiter
The human capital and signaling stories can both explain the existence of malemployment.  But malemployment research still provides some of the most compelling evidence in favor of the signaling model. 

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
CNBC | Damage to city budgets: Some was self-inflicted
Five years after a once-in-a-lifetime global financial collapse and the Great Recession, many American cities now caught in a financial bind can rightly blame forces beyond their control.
Politico | GOP appropriators urge budget deal — soon
The thirteen top Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee joined in a letter Monday urging budget negotiators to “redouble” their efforts and report a top-line number for discretionary spending before Thanksgiving — or no later than Dec. 2.
National Journal | Did the Shutdown Even Matter?
When budget negotiations began last month, Democrats felt confident that public opinion surrounding the government shutdown would force Republicans to the table, eager to prove their party could compromise.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Politico | Budget committee can’t fail
The budget panel — a conference committee created to help avoid another government shutdown — can’t fail.