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Friday, September 7, 2012

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | U.S. Stocks Rise Amid Stimulus Bets After Employment Data
The market is taking this weak jobs number as a positive because it means that we’re going to get action coming from Bernanke and company.
Bloomberg | Shale Boom Cuts Gulf Oil Premium to 24-Year Low: Energy Markets
The U.S. shale boom has driven the cost of Gulf Coast light, sweet oil to its lowest level versus Brent crude in almost a quarter century as the nation’s dependence on foreign supplies wanes.
Bloomberg | German Industrial Output Unexpectedly Increased in July
German industrial production unexpectedly rose in July, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy is weathering the region’s debt crisis.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
AEI | Let banks trade securities — it's where their future lies
The idea that banking organizations can be profitable solely or principally as lenders, or that this would be good for them or the U.S. economy, is based on a vision of the economy and the capital markets that no longer exists.
WSJ | China's Slowdown and American Business
Hardly a week goes by without complaints about payment problems or bankrupt debtors.
Forbes | Polaroid, Kodak, Apple: No One Escapes the Winds of Creative Destruction
Corporations may not be people, but they are still bound by a cycle of life.
Bloomberg | Don’t Make Banks Too Small to Succeed
a global economy, there is a need for financial institutions with scale and global capacity. Large banks offer their customers products, services and infrastructure that smaller banks cannot match, from multicity branch networks to global coverage that lowers costs.
Washington Post | Are you better off now than four years ago?
By the numbers, most Americans aren’t better off than they were four years ago — but they aren’t much worse off, either.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Cato @ Liberty | Type the Title You Want People to See
My sense is that the word “regulate” is migrating from its origin in referring to formal and governmental rules to a more general sense of any constraint.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
NY Times | With Medicaid, Long-Term Care of Elderly Looms as a Rising Cost
With baby boomers and their parents living longer than ever, few families can count on their own money to go the distance.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Washington Times | URIBE: Obamacare fosters patient entitlement
Affordable Care presumes a patient will be admitted to a hospital, treated and discharged and will not return again until the government thinks it’s necessary.

Monetary

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | The ECB Wades In Deeper
Mario Draghi laid out the European Central Bank's latest bond-buying venture Thursday, and we suppose the good news is that it isn't as sweeping as it might have been.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | Costs and intentions
Monetary policy has become a tricky business. Since the traditional Fed policy tool, the Fed funds rate target, can’t go much lower, the Fed has turned to less conventional methods, such as buying long-term Treasuries.

Taxes

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CNN Money | Stop beating up the Rich
Most of the 1.4 million taxpayers who make up the top 1% gained their wealth through their own efforts rather than by inheritance. This group consists of a large number of doctors, lawyers, engineers, and small-time entrepreneurs, many of whom are working hard to create jobs.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Tax Foundation | Obama's Tax Rates on Investment would exceed Clinton's Rates
Capital gains revenues doubled, both in nominal terms and as a share of all federal revenues, between 1996 and 2000. To no small degree, this surge in capital gains revenue made possible Bill Clinton’s balanced budgets.

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
Market Watch | U.S. hiring weakens in August; jobless rate drops
Job growth slowed sharply in August, the government reported Friday, with the data reinforcing concern about the weak labor market and triggering speculation that the Federal Reserve may take aggressive action to help the U.S. economy.
CNN Money | What's to blame for lost coal jobs
The coal industry is indeed facing some tough times, and increased regulation is partly to blame. But its woes go beyond Obama's policies.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation: Scribe | FACT CHECK: Have 4.5 Million New Jobs Been Created Under Obama?
It’s no secret that employment is the top concern for Americans. It stands to reason, then, that politicians will be hyping their proposals for job creation, and touting their respective records on that front.
Economist: Free exchange | More of the same, unfortunately
The economy remains balanced between slowdown and recovery.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Jobs Gain of 200,000 Still Isn’t Enough
Curb your enthusiasm, you payroll-watching economic bulls.

Budget

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
RCM | The Household Debt Picture: Better, But Still a Drag
While it is encouraging that Americans are continuing to chip away at the enormous debt overhang that has weighed on the economic recovery, digging into the data more deeply shows that the picture is more complicated and less cheering than it initially appears.
CRS | The "Fiscal Cliff": Macroeconomic Consequences of Tax Increases and Spending Cuts
A major policy concern for Congress is when and whether to address the "fiscal cliff," a set of tax increases and spending cuts that would substantially reduce the deficit in 2013. In projections made in March 2012 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this fiscal restraint, constituting 5.1% of output in 2013, would reduce growth to 0.5% from 4.4%. Unemployment would increase by two million. In August, updated estimates projected growth at a negative 0.5%.