News
Market Watch | Philadelphia Fed index slows to 6.5 in November
The Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index slowed to a reading of 6.5 in November from 19.8 in October. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a reading of 14.5.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Factory Production Accelerates as China Cools
Euro-area manufacturing expanded for a fifth month in November, as Germany continued to drive the 17-nation currency bloc’s gradual recovery from a record-long recession.
Market Watch | U.S. Markit flash PMI rebounds in November
Markit's U.S. index of manufacturing purchasing managers rose to 54.3 in a preliminary November reading, an eight-month high, from a final reading of 51.8 in October, according to data released Thursday.
Bloomberg | Americans Recover Home Equity at Record Pace: Mortgages
The number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth fell at the fastest pace on record in the third quarter as prices rose, a sign supply shortages may ease as more owners are able to sell.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | Farm bill talks intensify
Farm bill talks intensified Wednesday night even as a new report showed that food stamp expenditures are already beginning to fall as a share of the economy — a downward decline that’s expected to accelerate over the next five years.
WSJ | Worse Than ObamaCare
No question, it's tough on Barack Obama. But what about the rest of us? For many Americans, the Obama leadership meltdown began five years ago.
Forbes | Why Most Rich 1 Percenters Would Give Anything To Be Among The 99%
If the Democrats are not (electorally) washed away by a tsunami of voter outrage over Obamacare, they will no doubt seek to make “growing inequality” the principal issue in the 2014 elections. So, let’s apply a little unconventional logic to the subject of inequality.
Politico | Why We Need Fannie and Freddie
With their recent earnings announcements, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have now repaid all but about $4 billion of the $189 federal bailout that kept the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) afloat after the financial meltdown five years ago.
Blogs
Library of Economics | European Union, which steps forward?
An almost invariable mantra of European politics is that Europe needs "an ever closer Union". Political centralization is commonly considered the only way out of the crisis - meaning, first of all, centralization of fiscal policies, as an all-powerful Brussels should be able to (a) put order in the balance sheets of profligate member states (the stick) and (b) put an end to the tax competition that endangers fiscal revenues of high taxed member states (the carrot).
Café Hayek | Pseudo-Economics
People who have no exposure to the economic way of thinking typically think that they understand sufficiently the logic of markets to comment critically upon real-world market processes. As frustrating as this reality is – with its incessant outpouring of wrongheaded diagnoses and demands for this or that government intervention – it’s a reality that ain’t gonna go away.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Health Care
News
Politico | The House GOP’s Obamacare playbook
The House Republican leadership is coordinating an aggressive push to keep Obamacare’s problems front and center both on Capitol Hill and around the country.
National Journal | Global Spending On Medicines to Exceed One Trillion Dollars in 2014
Total global spending on medicines will exceed one trillion U.S. dollars in 2014, reaching almost $1.2 trillion in 2017, according to a new report.
CNN Money | How 'affordable' are Obamacare plans?
Many Americans browsing the Obamacare exchanges are finding the Affordable Care Act isn't living up to its name.
Blogs
Fortune | New Obamacare confusion: Can you keep your policy? Maybe.
Last week, President Barack Obama said he would allow insurers to extend for another year health insurance plans that they canceled because the policies don't meet Affordable Care Act standards.
Politico | The House GOP’s Obamacare playbook
The House Republican leadership is coordinating an aggressive push to keep Obamacare’s problems front and center both on Capitol Hill and around the country.
National Journal | Global Spending On Medicines to Exceed One Trillion Dollars in 2014
Total global spending on medicines will exceed one trillion U.S. dollars in 2014, reaching almost $1.2 trillion in 2017, according to a new report.
CNN Money | How 'affordable' are Obamacare plans?
Many Americans browsing the Obamacare exchanges are finding the Affordable Care Act isn't living up to its name.
Blogs
Fortune | New Obamacare confusion: Can you keep your policy? Maybe.
Last week, President Barack Obama said he would allow insurers to extend for another year health insurance plans that they canceled because the policies don't meet Affordable Care Act standards.
Monetary
News
Bloomberg | Wholesale Prices in U.S. Fell in October for a Second Month
The 0.2 percent drop in the producer-price index followed a 0.1 percent decline the prior month, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The decrease matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 75 economists.
Bloomberg | Fed QE Taper Likely in Coming Months on Data, Minutes Say
Federal Reserve officials signaled they may taper their $85 billion in monthly bond buying “in coming months” if the economy improves as anticipated.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | Fed Is Shooting at a Moving Target
Tinkering around the edges. That’s how it strikes me, all this talk about adjusting thresholds and offering more and better forward guidance.
Bloomberg | Wholesale Prices in U.S. Fell in October for a Second Month
The 0.2 percent drop in the producer-price index followed a 0.1 percent decline the prior month, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The decrease matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 75 economists.
Bloomberg | Fed QE Taper Likely in Coming Months on Data, Minutes Say
Federal Reserve officials signaled they may taper their $85 billion in monthly bond buying “in coming months” if the economy improves as anticipated.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | Fed Is Shooting at a Moving Target
Tinkering around the edges. That’s how it strikes me, all this talk about adjusting thresholds and offering more and better forward guidance.
Taxes
Blogs
Roll Call | Don’t Bet on a Tax Code Rewrite Happening Anytime Soon
In the current congressional climate, it’s wiser to assume something won’t happen than it is to assume it will — even when it’s the chairman of an important committee proposing a sweeping policy rewrite.
Roll Call | Don’t Bet on a Tax Code Rewrite Happening Anytime Soon
In the current congressional climate, it’s wiser to assume something won’t happen than it is to assume it will — even when it’s the chairman of an important committee proposing a sweeping policy rewrite.
Employment
News
National Journal | Unemployment Insurance for 1.3 Million Will End at Christmas Unless Congress Acts
Republicans in budget negotiations have said repeatedly that the Dec. 13 deadline to get a deal could pass without consequence. But Democrats warn that a real budgetary cliff does loom: Emergency unemployment insurance will expire by year’s end.
CNN Money | 'Manly' jobs aren't coming back
After losing more than 6 million jobs, men have gained only about 70% of them back, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bloomberg | Claims for U.S. Jobless Benefits Fall More Than Forecast
Applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. declined to the lowest level in almost two months, showing further healing in the labor market.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Investors | Real Jobless Rate 11.8% Excluding Labor Force Exodus
Census employees "faked" employment survey data, possibly accounting for an unemployment drop just before the 2012 election, claims the New York Post.
National Journal | Unemployment Insurance for 1.3 Million Will End at Christmas Unless Congress Acts
Republicans in budget negotiations have said repeatedly that the Dec. 13 deadline to get a deal could pass without consequence. But Democrats warn that a real budgetary cliff does loom: Emergency unemployment insurance will expire by year’s end.
CNN Money | 'Manly' jobs aren't coming back
After losing more than 6 million jobs, men have gained only about 70% of them back, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bloomberg | Claims for U.S. Jobless Benefits Fall More Than Forecast
Applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. declined to the lowest level in almost two months, showing further healing in the labor market.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Investors | Real Jobless Rate 11.8% Excluding Labor Force Exodus
Census employees "faked" employment survey data, possibly accounting for an unemployment drop just before the 2012 election, claims the New York Post.
Budget
News
Politico | Debt ceiling deadline pushed back
Though Congress agreed in October to hike the nation’s borrowing authority through Feb. 7, the Treasury Department’s use of extraordinary measures will likely give lawmakers an additional month to haggle over a deal to raise the debt ceiling above $17.1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Heritage Foundation | Cutting the U.S. Budget Would Help the Economy Grow
Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives have convened the first budget conference in four years. With the deadline of December 13 for the conference report, lawmakers have little time to agree on a budget plan for fiscal year 2014 and beyond, and yet so much depends on their succeeding.
CBO | Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit, November 2013
The debt limit—commonly referred to as the debt ceiling—is the maximum amount of debt that the Department of the Treasury can issue to the public and to other federal agencies.
CATO | Will Paul Ryan and GOP Budget Negotiators Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory?
There’s a joke in Washington that Democrats are the evil party and Republicans are the stupid party. Except this joke isn’t very funny since a lot of bad policy occurs when gullible GOPers get lured into “bipartisan” deals that expand government.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | The Truth About Spending Cuts and the Economy
Liberal economists like Paul Krugman might be calling for more government spending to help our ailing economy, but federal spending cuts are the better bet for long-term economic growth according to a new study released today by The Heritage Foundation’s Romina Boccia.
Politico | Debt ceiling deadline pushed back
Though Congress agreed in October to hike the nation’s borrowing authority through Feb. 7, the Treasury Department’s use of extraordinary measures will likely give lawmakers an additional month to haggle over a deal to raise the debt ceiling above $17.1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Heritage Foundation | Cutting the U.S. Budget Would Help the Economy Grow
Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives have convened the first budget conference in four years. With the deadline of December 13 for the conference report, lawmakers have little time to agree on a budget plan for fiscal year 2014 and beyond, and yet so much depends on their succeeding.
CBO | Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit, November 2013
The debt limit—commonly referred to as the debt ceiling—is the maximum amount of debt that the Department of the Treasury can issue to the public and to other federal agencies.
CATO | Will Paul Ryan and GOP Budget Negotiators Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory?
There’s a joke in Washington that Democrats are the evil party and Republicans are the stupid party. Except this joke isn’t very funny since a lot of bad policy occurs when gullible GOPers get lured into “bipartisan” deals that expand government.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | The Truth About Spending Cuts and the Economy
Liberal economists like Paul Krugman might be calling for more government spending to help our ailing economy, but federal spending cuts are the better bet for long-term economic growth according to a new study released today by The Heritage Foundation’s Romina Boccia.
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