Pages

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Job-hopping Millennials are losing big on retirement savings
Leaving your job before you've worked long enough to retain the money your employer has contributed to your 401(k) can mean the loss of thousands of dollars in retirement savings.
Business Insider | RANKED: The 50 US State Economies From Worst to Best
The U.S. economy is in pretty good shape. GDP is growing, unemployment is falling, and we're seeing signs that wages may be on the rise.
Fox Business | China Will Have World's Largest Economy By 2024: Report
Explosive growth in Chinese consumer spending over the next decade will allow China to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy by 2024, according to a new report.
CNN Money | 5 reasons to worry about Scottish vote
A vote in favor of independence would end a 307-year union with England and have far reaching consequences for the economy, currency, banks and industry. There could also be knock-on effects across Europe

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
The Washington Times | A society sickened by welfare
Congress has returned to Washington, but not for long. The looming midterm elections mean that lawmakers are here only for what USA Today calls "a three-week sprint" before they're back out to campaign.
Fortune | The slow decay of American economic competitiveness
While the American economy is adding jobs at a faster pace than at any point since the end of the financial crisis and is growing faster than many of its developed peers, it’s still not close to full strength.
AEI | Americans have already forgotten that this is a great nation
A man beheads two Americans with a knife that is not particularly sharp. The second time, he taunts the president of the United States: “I’m back, Obama.” His terrorist organization, ISIS, is reclaiming Iraqi cities that were once liberated — painstakingly, block by block, house by house — by American soldiers and that cost American blood and treasure.
Cato Institute | The Export-Import Bank and Its Victims: Which Industries and States Bear the Brunt?
The charter of the Export-Import Bank of the United States is set to expire on September 30. Proponents of reauthorization claim that by increasing exports and jobs, Ex-Im benefits the U.S. economy.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Wall Street Journal | Why More Renters Aren’t Buying (Hint: Weak Incomes, Savings)
A new survey says that younger workers and other renters aren’t turning away from homeownership because they lack the desire to own homes. Instead, they’re staying on the sidelines because they lack the capacity to purchase.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Hospital consolidation: Is it raising costs?
Hospital consolidation since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act is a potential threat to free markets and health care costs, and one to which the Federal Trade Commission is paying close attention, said Martin Gaynor, director of the Bureau of Economics at the FTC.
National Journal | Politically, Obamacare Isn't About Health Care
Obamacare has taken on a political life of its own, largely separate from the complex series of health care policies it actually comprises.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Wall Street Journal | The Myth of ObamaCare's Affordability
Whether the Affordable Care Act lives up to its name depends on how, or whether, you consider its consequences for the wider economy.
CRS | Health Care Fraud and Abuse Laws Affecting Medicare and Medicaid: An Overview
A number of federal statutes aim to combat fraud and abuse in federally funded health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Using these statutes, the federal government has been able to recover billions of dollars lost due to fraudulent activities. This report provides an overview of some of the more commonly used federal statutes used to fight health care fraud and abuse and discusses some of the changes made to these statutes by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
Wall Street Journal | Fed to Hit Biggest U.S. Banks With Tougher Capital Surcharge
The Federal Reserve plans to hit the biggest U.S. banks with a costly new requirement aimed at reducing the risk that some financial firms remain "too big to fail" nearly six years after the financial crisis erupted.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economics 21 | The Case for the Gold Standard
There has not been one instance in history where active monetary management has advanced an economy.” So goes the bold claim in the new book by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It.
Wall Street Journal | Have Markets Become More Dovish Than the Fed?
Investors may be growing a little too comfortable with the prospect that Federal Reserveofficials will leave interest rates near rock-bottom lows for the foreseeable future, according to a research note from the San Francisco Fed published Monday.

Taxes

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Cato Institute | Taxes, Tennis, and Transportation
We have an uncompetitive federal corporate tax rate of 35 percentcompared to Canada’s 15 percent. Our Roth IRA is inferior to Canada’s TFSA, as Amity Shlaes and I discussed in the Wall Street Journal. And while Serena Williams still tops rising star Eugenie Bouchard, we should be paying attention to ”What Canada Can Teach Us About Tennis.”

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | L.A. mayor calls for $13.25 minimum wage
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's proposal would provide raises for 567,000 city workers, if approved by the city council.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Market Watch | Minimum-wage hike will give labor pains
Economists have long believed that when you increase the minimum wage, the economy loses jobs. However, once you get outside the ivory tower of academia, you find few adherents to this basic economic principle — until now.
Fox Business | Minimum Wage Hikes: 4 Ways to Prepare Now
In his 2014 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama urged Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. Since then, 10 states have voted to increase their minimum wages, and many more states, counties, towns and individual businesses plan to raise, or discuss raising, their hourly employees' pay rates in the coming years.
Investors.com | Would You Like Fries With Your Unemployment Check?
Fast-food workers engage in a nationwide "Fight for 15" while ignoring the economic reality of higher prices, fewer jobs and the sawing off of that first rung on the economic ladder of success.

Budget

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
The Washington Times | USDA’s lesson in failed stimulus
President Obama's stimulus plan will be remembered for decades - not for what it did for the economy, but what it did to the economy.
Real Clear Markets | The Budget Crisis Could End In One Of Two Ways
Since publication of the first volume of Restoring Fiscal Sanity in 2004, a small group of budget experts from Brookings and several other think tanks have been predicting that the budget crisis, not yet fully realized in 2004, could end in either of two ways.
CBO | Monthly Budget Review for August 2014
The federal government ran a budget deficit of $589 billion for the first 11 months of fiscal year 2014, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates—$166 billion less than the shortfall recorded over the same period last year.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Wall Street Journal | Consumer Borrowing Accelerated in July as Credit-Card Borrowing Rose
Consumer borrowing accelerated in July as Americans took on more credit-card debt and other loans.