The November retail sales data clearly do no support a recession scenario. Nov(3) Oct sept total 385,753 381,088 380,231 grocery 43,417 43,003 42,805 gas 39,438 36,919 35,806 Nonstore retailers…………………………. 25,611 25,127 25,016 REMAINDER 277,287 276,039 276,604 About half of the nonstore retailers is fuel oil deliveries. So if you take out the price drivenlarge increases […]
The NYT has an opinion on the current energy bill. The centerpiece of the bill is the first meaningful increase in fuel efficiency standards in three decades — from today’s fleetwide average of 25 miles per gallon to 35 m.p.g. by 2020. To win necessary Republican votes, the Senate leadership agreed to drop one valuable […]
The Georgia Public Policy Foundation suggests tiered pricing as a long term solution to their water problems. Worse, water restrictions can harm conservation efforts by considerably reducing revenue to utilities and local governments, forcing rate hikes or shrinking funding opportunities for growth, maintenance and improvement of aging systems. Repairs and maintenance are a serious concern: […]
OMB Watch has some strong views on current trends in federal agency regulation. Federal regulators commonly use cost-benefit analysis as a means for assessing one or moreregulatory policy options. However, cost-benefit analysis is an unreliable and often inappropriate tool.The results of cost-benefit analysis obscure uncertainty and mask the value of those benefits thatagencies cannot translate […]
I’ve been doing some numbers concerning personal income. Breaking out share of income, savings, GDP, etc based on BEA data and Saez’s data. I’m playing with it, have converted it to year 2000 dollars and will be looking at per capita relations too. Even thinking of converting it all to 1929 dollars. I plan a […]
The GAO has published an interesting analysis of Free Trade Agreements made since 2002(WTO GATTS style). Congress granted the President Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in 2002 through the Trade Act of 20021 to negotiate agreements, including free trade agreements (FTA), which aim to reduce trade barriers and expand trade with selected trade partners. The legislation […]
The other end of the the water problem continues as well. A group of environmental advocates is suing Virginia over a decision it says allows a sewage plant to continue polluting waters that flow into the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay. The discharge from the North Fork Modular Reclamation and Reuse Facility was considered so harmful […]
We know who’s smart and who’s not. It isn’t Secretary Paulson, who’s been speaking platitudes about a “strong dollar policy” for his entire term. Now China, main beneficiary of its basket-peg to the Dollar, makes pious noises that echo Paulson. Two birds are singing the same song, and neither is very sincere. Strong Dollar Policy“China […]
This is written by KenMelvin Black Holes: Just for the sake of discussion, let’s say that there were five hundred billionaires in the US yesterday, and that, on average, each was worth $10 billion, i.e., their total net worth was $5 trillion. Further, let’s assume that, being both smart and powerful; their average return on […]
Pricing mechanisms make for some odd thinking, or thinking of odd things, whichever is more useful at the time. $100 oil. Will this be the iceberg that rips open the prow of our economy? Perhaps I have an odd take on this, but when I look at ‘C’ note oil I still see a bargain […]