News
CNN Money | Detroit bankruptcy plan proposes slashing pension benefits up to 34%
The plan proposes deep cuts in the health care coverage for retirees. And there could be even deeper cuts in what the city is offering to pay banks and other investors holding the city's debt. A summary of the plan on the city's Web site said bondholders would get new securities worth 20% of amount they are still owed.
Econ Comments & Analysis
CNN Money | G20 pledges to add $2 trillion to global economy
The largest global economies have pledged to install policies that will add $2 trillion to the world economy over the next five years.
Real Clear Markets | This Is the Age of Fairy-Tale Economics
The great virtue of the Congressional Budget Office's recent report on the minimum wage is that it injects a much-needed dose of reality into the debate over job creation.
Real Clear Markets | The Minimum Wage Is An Expensive Way To Help the Poor
President Obama wants Congress to raise the minimum wage from its current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour. He says this is needed to be fair to workers and to help lift poor, working families out of poverty. The first part is probably not true and the minimum wage is a very inefficient way to accomplish the second goal.
Fortune | Why coal and many oil investments are losing luster
Climate change has long been an issue, but companies are also starting to pull back because it's wasteful spending.
CBO | Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output in 2013
When ARRA was being considered, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would increase budget deficits by $787 billion between fiscal years 2009 and 2019. CBO now estimates that the total impact over the 2009–2019 period will amount to about $830 billion. By CBO’s estimate, close to half of that impact occurred in fiscal year 2010, and more than 95 percent of ARRA’s budgetary impact was realized by the end of December 2013.
AEI | More equality, less work: Obama's America, according to the CBO
The Obama administration has benefited quite a bit from its analysis of a number of policy issues, including the fiscal stimulus and immigration reform. But there is currently a chill in the relationship between the White House and the Congressional Budget Office that has spilled into the media over the agency’s estimates of the labor market effects of two of President Obama’s most important policy efforts.
Blogs
Reuters | Despite stimulus, middle class still struggles
Five years ago Monday, President Barack Obama signed the signature economic proposal of his presidency, saying that the passage of the $787 billion economic stimulus package heralded the “the beginning of the end” of the Great Recession.
CATO | Fannie and Freddie Offset Reported Government Spending
The federal government took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (F&F) in 2008 and have bailed them out with $189 billion of taxpayer money.
Library of Economics | The Minimum Wage vs. Welfare: Band-Aid or Salt?
Peter Thiel entertains what economists would call a "second-best" argument in favor of raising the minimum wage
