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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
FOX Business | Homebuilder Sentiment Soars to '06 Levels
U.S. homebuilder confidence rose in July to its strongest level in 7-1/2 years as tightening supply and solid demand even in the face of rising mortgage rates fueled the sector's recovery, data from the National Association of Home Builders released on Tuesday showed.
Bloomberg | Deutsche Bank Among Lenders Given Two-Year U.S. Swaps Phase-Out
Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), the European continent’s biggest bank, is among lenders given an extra two years by the Federal Reserve to separate derivatives trading from U.S. units that get government backing.
Market Watch | Industrial production climbs 0.3% in June
Industrial production rose 0.3% in June, led by a 2.2% gain in home electronics output and a 1.4% gain in automotive products, as well as a 0.8% gain in mining production, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Fortune | Goldman Sachs' profits double
Earnings showed how Goldman is trying to remake itself into more of a traditional bank, even as risky trading remains.
WSJ | Land Mines in the Derivatives 'Path Forward'
Last week's announcement of a "Path Forward" by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the European Commission is an important step toward coordinating the rules for derivatives trading.
Fortune | The lowdown on China's slowdown: It's not all bad
A slower-growing economy could allow for more investment in things that make China a happier, healthier place over the long run.
Washington Times | Fracking is greener than critics claim
The only thing deeper than a natural-gas well is the ignorance of the anti-fracking crowd.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Library of Economics | Krugman's Graph on Food Stamps
Check out Paul Krugman's graph of participation in the food stamp (SNAP) program and U6 unemployment. MAKE SURE YOU LOOK ONLY AT THE GRAPH.
Library of Economics | Trading With Foreigners: What's In It For Us?
Arguments against international trade and immigration are classic examples of people ignoring Bastiat's lesson and focusing only on what is seen while ignoring what is unseen. What, people ask, is in it for *us* if we trade with foreigners?

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Obamacare primer: How is it really going to work?
In less than three months, people are going to be able to sign up for Obamacare coverage for the first time.
CNN Money | Doctors bail out on their practices
Doctors who own private practices are looking for a way out. Fed up with their rising business expenses and shrinking payouts from insurers, many are selling their practices to hospitals.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CRS | Individual Mandate and Related Information Requirements under ACA
This report describes the ACA individual mandate. Beginning in 2014, ACA requires individuals to maintain health insurance coverage, with some exceptions.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: Even Unions Are Turning on Obamacare
The many ways liberal leaders keep marching forward, insisting nothing’s wrong, are becoming laughable. Appearing on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that “Obamacare has been wonderful for America.”

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Prices climb in June, but annual inflation still tame
Prices for groceries and clothing and other goods all increased in June, but inflation remains below 2% a year.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Fortune | Interest rates 101: Why the party is over
The Fed wants to keep long-term yields depressed, but its policies are riddling the market with risk.
WSJ | The Financial Instability Council
There's finally a healthy discussion in Washington about how to end too-big-to-fail banks. But before the government can start getting rid of taxpayer-backed behemoths, it first has to stop creating them.
Forbes | Ben Bernanke's Fed Needs Help That Kevin Brady's Monetary Commission Plans To Provide
On July 10th Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke made a widely noted speech before the National Bureau of Economic Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts: “A Century of U.S. Central Banking: Goals, Frameworks, Accountability.” The immediate takeaway? Rumors of the “tapering” are widely exaggerated.
NBER | X-CAPM: An Extrapolative Capital Asset Pricing Model
Survey evidence suggests that many investors form beliefs about future stock market returns by extrapolating past returns: they expect the stock market to perform well (poorly) in the near future if it performed well (poorly) in the recent past. Such beliefs are hard to reconcile with existing models of the aggregate stock market.

Taxes

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Washington Times | Flat tax? Sales tax? Value-added tax?
Tax professionals, economists, elected officials and others heatedly debate the pros and cons of each. However, it is unlikely that real tax reform will occur until the financial crisis gets so bad that most people will agree to radical change.

Employment

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | A Jobless Recovery Is a Phony Recovery
In recent months, Americans have heard reports out of Washington and in the media that the economy is looking up—that recovery from the Great Recession is gathering steam. If only it were true. The longest and worst recession since the end of World War II has been marked by the weakest recovery from any U.S. recession in that same period.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Real Wages Still Below June 2009 Level
Average hourly wages were unchanged from May to June after adjusting for inflation, the latest sign of households struggling to gain purchasing power in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
WSJ | OECD Doesn’t See Unemployment Falling Until Late 2014
The rate of unemployment across developed economies won’t start to fall until “well into” 2014, while disparities among rich countries are likely to widen further, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday.

Budget

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Washington Post | Don’t write off the deficit
All is quiet on the federal deficit front — or so many in Washington would like to pretend. Exhausted by the past couple of years of political trench warfare over a “grand bargain,” congressional Republicans and Democrats are doing nothing to end the across-the-board cuts to discretionary programs, known as sequestration, or to address the nation’s long-term fiscal predicament.
Mercatus | The US Debt in Perspective
The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are often omitted from discussions about the large size of US public debt. Once these are taken into consideration, it becomes clear that the US government is already bankrupt.