Archive for July, 2009
« Previous EntriesThree Notes on Budgetary Priorities
Submitted by unsettling economics
At the time that my university system faces almost half a billion dollars (yes, with a B) in budget cuts, I have felt the need to rant about budget priorities. As Joseph Schumpeter wrote: “the budget is the skeleton of the state stripped of all misleading ideologies.”
People outside of California could not [...]
A MIXED MESSAGE IN GDP’S Q2 REPORT
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
It’s official: the economic contraction slowed dramatically in the second quarter. By that standard, the government can claim a victory. But now comes the hard part, and progress won’t come easily or quickly.
For the moment, however, there’s reason to cheer. The annual real change in GDP in this year’s second quarter [...]
ANOTHER RISE IN JOBLESS CLAIMS
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
Today’s update on initial jobless claims reminds that the threat of economic contraction isn’t vanquished. There’s been progress, but the dark forces of decline are still lurking.
For the week ending July 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 584,000, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week’s revised [...]
Fiscal Policy and Banking Sector Repair Synergies
Submitted by Econbrowser
From the conclusion to “How Effective is Fiscal Policy Response in Systemic Banking Crises?”, by E. Baldacci, S. Gupta, and C. Mulas-Granados:
This paper assessed the effects of fiscal policy responses during 118 episodes of systemic banking crises in advanced and emerging market economies. The results indicate that timely countercyclical fiscal responses (both due [...]
Consumer Sovereignty: Russia Edition
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
MOSCOW — Aeroflot’s symbol is still the winged hammer and sickle, but otherwise, the former communist carrier has mostly shrugged off its Soviet past. The strongest evidence yet: by the end of the year, it will fly a fleet nearly entirely made in the U.S.A. and Western Europe.
That Aeroflot will fly almost [...]
The Myth of America’s “Free Market” Health Care: It’s Free Market The Same Way Madonna is A Virgin
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Both ObamaCare’s supporters and opponents believe that–unlike Europe–America has something called a free market health care system. So long as this myth holds sway, it will be exceedingly difficult to prescribe free market fixes to America’s health care woes–or, conversely, end the lure of big government remedies.
The fact of the matter is [...]
Cowardly Chicago City Council Punts on Wal-Mart
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Chicago Sun-Times editorial.
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The Problems With Free Healthcare Provided by Government-Run Healthcare Monopolies
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The more money that has been spent on government-run healthcare, the less healthcare we have gotten. This kind of result is generally true of all government bureaucracies because of the absence of any market feedback mechanism. Since there are no profits in an accounting sense, by definition, in government, there is no [...]
Tyler Cowen: Web and Info Economy Protect Us Against Tyranny, Are Bulwarks of Our Freedom
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Tyler Cowen, one of the country’s foremost defenders of free markets and international exchange, sees his new book “Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World” as an ode to the power of the individual, “and how we can all create our own liberties essentially by using the [...]
Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez Gets Citation for Journalistic Excellence from Columbia University
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Announces Winners of 2009
Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Outstanding Reporting
on Latin America and the Caribbean
Yoani Sánchez is an ordinary Cuban citizen using the Internet with extraordinary power. In barely two years, her weekly blog, Generación Y, has put the rest of the world in touch with [...]
Jobless Claims (4-Wk. Avg.) Fall to 6-Month Low
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for state jobless benefits rose last week, but they remain below peak levels reached in the spring.
Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 25,000 to 584,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ended July 25, the Labor Department said in [...]
Just One Corporation, Exxon Mobil, Paid Almost As Much in Income Taxes in 2007 As The Bottom 50%
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to IRS tax data just released, the bottom 50% of taxpayers paid $32.26 billion in income taxes in 2007, and the size of that group is 70.53 million U.S. taxpayers. In the same year, just one American corporation, Exxon Mobil, paid $29.86 billion in income taxes to various governments (updated), [...]
Top 1% Now Pays More in Tax Than Bottom 95%
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
TAX POLICY BLOG – Newly released data from the IRS clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the “rich” are not paying their fair share of taxes and disproportionately benefited from the Bush tax cuts.
Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1% of taxpayers paid 40.4% [...]
Will Unemployment Prevent Recovery From the Recession?
Submitted by Businomics Blog
One question I get in my speeches goes like this:
Won’t our high unemployment rate prevent an end to the recession? After all, people out of work don’t spend much money.
Think about this a moment. How did we ever get out of the recession of the early 1980s, when unemployment rose well above [...]
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE…AND TIMELY
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
There’s been some good news lately, including the encouraging signs in real estate. New home sales rose last month, posting the third straight monthly increase. For some, the writing is now on the wall. “Recession is over, economy is recovering,” declared John Silvia, Wells Fargo’s chief economist, in a research note, [...]
Green jobs
Submitted by Econbrowser
One of our local papers did a better job of reporting this issue than I have seen from any of the big guys, in part because the reporter started with the question that I think everyone should be asking: what does it mean to create a green job? Here’s what I said:
If you [...]
Key to Healthcare Reform: Lively Competition, Not The Dead Hand of Government Compulsion
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Jeff Jacoby writes in today’s Boston Globe:
Imagine the sort of car you’d drive if government regulations made it illegal to sell any automobile that didn’t feature 380-horsepower direct-injection V6 engines, computer-controlled electric power steering, eight-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel-drive, automatic climate control, “smart key’’ technology, touch-screen navigation, backup cameras, LED headlights, acoustic glass, [...]
Boston:166 Women Per 100 Men in 4-Year Colleges
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY — New findings by Northeastern’s Center for Labor Market Studies show that while more city high school graduates are enrolling in two- and four-year colleges, females are outpacing males in the successful completion of high school and enrollment in college.
The research paper, prepared by the Center’s director Andrew Sum found [...]
The Little Clinic Also Offers $29 Physicals
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
It’s not just Target that is offering $29 sports, school and camp physicals, competition is a wonderful thing and “The Little Clinic” is also offering $29 physicals at its retail clinics in nine states, mostly in Kroger and Publix grocery stores.
HT: Brad S.
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More on Cash for Clunkers and Clunky Paperwork
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Car dealers reported problems with the government’s online system to get the transactions approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is running the program.
Scott Lambert, vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association, said he was “astounded” to learn at a meeting Tuesday representing about 150 Minnesota dealers that not [...]
UK’s Gov’t. Health Care Has Pauperized Its Citizens
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Not coincidentally, the U.K. is by far the most unpleasant country in which to be ill in the Western world. Even Greeks living in Britain return home for medical treatment if they are physically able to do so.
The government-run health-care system—which in the U.K. is believed to be the necessary institutional corollary [...]
If You Can Afford The Monthly Payments for A Cell Phone, You Can Probably Afford Health Insurance
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Need insurance now? Insta-Care from BlueCross BlueShield Minnesota meets your needs.
Short-term coverage from Blue Cross can be a great choice for people like this:
Between jobs
Just out of school
Waiting for an employer’s coverage to start
Want coverage that can start right away
Benefit highlights:
Hospital services, prescription drugs, medical supplies, emergency care and more covered [...]
Cash for Clunkers: 136 Pages of Rules and Regs; How Many Pages for Government Health Care?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Webwire – The United States Government has recently released the “Cash For Clunkers” program, 2009. There has been some confusion as to how to go about claiming the $4,500 check. First of all, there is no “$4,500 check,” at least not one the public will ever see. The entire transaction must be [...]
Just What the Doctor Ordered, Antidote to Gov’t. Healthcare: $29 Physicals at Target Superstores
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
I just visited the health clinic at the Richfield (MN) Super Target (one of 22 Super Targets in the Twin Cities with convenient, walk-in, affordable health clinics) and took the picture above featuring “camp and sports physicals” for only $29, no appointment necessary. While I was there there was nobody waiting, [...]
Brain Drain Sabotages Venezuela’s Future
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
When they first elected him in 1998, Venezuelans hoped that Hugo Chávez would be a healer. Instead what they got was a tyrant who seizes private companies and farms, crushes labor unions, and harasses political opponents. And now after a decade of the so-called Bolivarian revolution, tens of thousands of disillusioned Venezuelan [...]
