News
Market Watch | NFIB small-business optimism index edges up
Small-business optimism edged higher in November on plans to increase employment and to expand, according to a survey released Tuesday. The National Federation of Independent Business said its small-business optimism index rose 0.9 points to 92.5.
CNN Money | Improving economy: Is it for real?
For the last five years, the story of the economic recovery has felt like one giant fake-out after another.
Market Watch | Good luck buying big city real estate next year
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced on Friday that it will lower the loan limits for its Federal Housing Administration mortgage — a loan used by many first-time and lower-income home buyers — from $729,750 to $625,500. The FHA insures mortgages that banks give to borrowers who make small down payments. Congress raised FHA mortgage caps six years ago in the wake of the downturn.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Investors | Dodd-Frank: Too Convoluted To Succeed
ObamaCare is only one of the president's crumbling initiatives. Five years ago this September, the Lehman Bros. investment bank collapsed. Markets around the world froze until Western governments devised a massive bailout plan that kept investors from pulling trillions out of the global financial system and precipitating a worldwide depression.
USA Today | Obama can't solve the jobs problem
Last week, President Obama gave a much-touted speech on "income inequality." But while inequality is a valid concern, it's not so clear that unequal incomes are the biggest problem America faces.
Politico | Income Inequality’s Ripple Effect
Last week, Barack Obama, delivering the clearest and most powerful economic policy speech of his presidency at an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress, identified “the combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility” as “the defining challenge of our time.”
Fortune | American Infrastructure raises $800 million fund
American Infrastructure MLP Fund has closed its second investment fund with $800 million in capital commitments, Fortune has learned. The Foster City, Calif.-based firm originally targeted $750 million, and now manages over $1.5 billion in total capital (including co-investment opportunities afforded LPs).
AEI | Income inequality revisionism
To consider only the seen while neglecting the unseen, as 19th-century political economist Frederic Bastiat warned, risks cognitive errors. Policymakers must try to imagine the counterfactual when making a decision, taking an action, or analyzing history.
Blogs
Café Hayek | Three Non-Economic Ways of Thinking
The first ‘other’ way of thinking is the undisciplined way of thinking (at least about most economic matters). It is probably the most common ‘other’ way of thinking. This way of thinking mistakes results (such as high wages) for causes of the very results that are desired (such as high wages).
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Health Care
News
WSJ | Republicans Shy Away From Their Own Health Plan
Democrats' politically bruising experience over the Obama health law has prompted leading Republican policy experts to rethink one of the party's own long-standing ideas about remaking the health-care system.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | The coming Obamabomb
President Obama’s infamous Obamacare lie that “you can keep your doctor, period” is clearly not the exception — it’s the rule. The pattern is especially worrisome with respect to his practice of what amounts to serial national-security fraud.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare: A Bad Deal for Young Adults
By now, young adults have heard that they are key to making Obamacare work, and the Obama Administration has spent ample resources trying to convince them that the law is a good deal for them.
WSJ | Republicans Shy Away From Their Own Health Plan
Democrats' politically bruising experience over the Obama health law has prompted leading Republican policy experts to rethink one of the party's own long-standing ideas about remaking the health-care system.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | The coming Obamabomb
President Obama’s infamous Obamacare lie that “you can keep your doctor, period” is clearly not the exception — it’s the rule. The pattern is especially worrisome with respect to his practice of what amounts to serial national-security fraud.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare: A Bad Deal for Young Adults
By now, young adults have heard that they are key to making Obamacare work, and the Obama Administration has spent ample resources trying to convince them that the law is a good deal for them.
Monetary
News
Bloomberg | Volcker Rule Ushers in Era of Increased U.S. Oversight of Trades
Wall Street faces increased government oversight of trading after U.S. regulators issued what they billed as a stricter Volcker rule today, imposing restrictions designed to prevent blowups while leaving many of the details to be worked out later.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | How Fed Policy Roils Emerging Markets
Taper talk is once again ruffling global markets as better-than-expected U.S. job creation feeds expectations that the Federal Reserve could start slowing down its $85 billion-a-month asset purchases, known as QE3.
Bloomberg | If We're Lucky Volcker Rule Will Make Banks Less Transparent
I guess the Volcker rule comes out tomorrow and you can read about it then but why should its nonexistence stop you today? Here are DealBook and Bloomberg News articles that are best read as companion pieces: Bank lobbyists think that the Volcker rule is too strict and will sue to weaken it, while anti-bank lobbyists think that it's too lenient and will lobby to strengthen it.
Blogs
WSJ | Fed’s Fisher: The Time to Taper Fed Bond Buys Is Now
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said Monday that it is time for the central bank to begin winding down its easy-money policies and give a clear time table for how that process will play out.
Bloomberg | Volcker Rule Ushers in Era of Increased U.S. Oversight of Trades
Wall Street faces increased government oversight of trading after U.S. regulators issued what they billed as a stricter Volcker rule today, imposing restrictions designed to prevent blowups while leaving many of the details to be worked out later.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | How Fed Policy Roils Emerging Markets
Taper talk is once again ruffling global markets as better-than-expected U.S. job creation feeds expectations that the Federal Reserve could start slowing down its $85 billion-a-month asset purchases, known as QE3.
Bloomberg | If We're Lucky Volcker Rule Will Make Banks Less Transparent
I guess the Volcker rule comes out tomorrow and you can read about it then but why should its nonexistence stop you today? Here are DealBook and Bloomberg News articles that are best read as companion pieces: Bank lobbyists think that the Volcker rule is too strict and will sue to weaken it, while anti-bank lobbyists think that it's too lenient and will lobby to strengthen it.
Blogs
WSJ | Fed’s Fisher: The Time to Taper Fed Bond Buys Is Now
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said Monday that it is time for the central bank to begin winding down its easy-money policies and give a clear time table for how that process will play out.
Taxes
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Your Lifetime Social Security Taxes and Benefits
For both your own planning purposes and a better understanding of looming budget battles in Washington, check out a new report: "Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Benefits Over a Lifetime: 2013 Update." The study, from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research and educational group, offers a look at the taxes you will contribute to, and the benefits you are likely to receive from, these two programs in your lifetime.
WSJ | Your Lifetime Social Security Taxes and Benefits
For both your own planning purposes and a better understanding of looming budget battles in Washington, check out a new report: "Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Benefits Over a Lifetime: 2013 Update." The study, from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research and educational group, offers a look at the taxes you will contribute to, and the benefits you are likely to receive from, these two programs in your lifetime.
Employment
News
WSJ | How to Keep Workers Unemployed
House-Senate negotiators are close to a modest budget accord to avoid another government shutdown, but suddenly the White House is introducing a last-minute demand. Five years into an economic recovery that President Obama often hails as miraculous, he wants to extend unemployment benefits one more time.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | The high cost of a free lunch
Last week, President Obama said that “income inequality” is the major problem that his administration would focus on for the remainder of his term. He proposed increasing the minimum wage as a way to solve this issue. The president’s statement is a perfect example of how politicians misdiagnose problems and then offer solutions that make matters worse.
Barrons | The Real Jobless Rate
The labor market purportedly turned in a Hanukkah miracle in November. The jobs report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that nonfarm payroll employment rose by an above-consensus 203,000 in November, while the unemployment rate fell from 7.3% to 7%, a five-year low.
Weekly Standard | Back to Work
Long-term unemployment is a serious problem. Liberals don’t have an answer. Conservatives can do better.
Blogs
CATO | Minimum Wage and Unemployment
“The biggest concern among economists is that imposing pay increases on employers will reduce the hiring of low-wage workers and raise unemployment. But in four decades of research by economists, this appears to be a small or nonexistent effect.”
WSJ | How to Keep Workers Unemployed
House-Senate negotiators are close to a modest budget accord to avoid another government shutdown, but suddenly the White House is introducing a last-minute demand. Five years into an economic recovery that President Obama often hails as miraculous, he wants to extend unemployment benefits one more time.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | The high cost of a free lunch
Last week, President Obama said that “income inequality” is the major problem that his administration would focus on for the remainder of his term. He proposed increasing the minimum wage as a way to solve this issue. The president’s statement is a perfect example of how politicians misdiagnose problems and then offer solutions that make matters worse.
Barrons | The Real Jobless Rate
The labor market purportedly turned in a Hanukkah miracle in November. The jobs report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that nonfarm payroll employment rose by an above-consensus 203,000 in November, while the unemployment rate fell from 7.3% to 7%, a five-year low.
Weekly Standard | Back to Work
Long-term unemployment is a serious problem. Liberals don’t have an answer. Conservatives can do better.
Blogs
CATO | Minimum Wage and Unemployment
“The biggest concern among economists is that imposing pay increases on employers will reduce the hiring of low-wage workers and raise unemployment. But in four decades of research by economists, this appears to be a small or nonexistent effect.”
Budget
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | High stakes in the budgetary breakdown
The slim fiscal agreement lawmakers are expected to pass this week once again leaves unaddressed the bigger and more imperative tasks of budgeting. This continued delay, whatever its causes, invites two major hazards, neither of which can be ignored much longer.
AEI | Recent developments in the Dynamic Fiscal Policy literature
In this article, Gorry and Hassett review the major contributions of the Auerbach- Kotlikoff model of dynamic fiscal policy and explore highlights of subsequent research based on dynamic general equilibrium models of fiscal policy.
Washington Times | High stakes in the budgetary breakdown
The slim fiscal agreement lawmakers are expected to pass this week once again leaves unaddressed the bigger and more imperative tasks of budgeting. This continued delay, whatever its causes, invites two major hazards, neither of which can be ignored much longer.
AEI | Recent developments in the Dynamic Fiscal Policy literature
In this article, Gorry and Hassett review the major contributions of the Auerbach- Kotlikoff model of dynamic fiscal policy and explore highlights of subsequent research based on dynamic general equilibrium models of fiscal policy.
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