CalculatedRisk provides a nice summary of the September Jobs Report. I suppose the 35 thousand drop in employment per the Payroll Survey (17 thousand drop per the Household Survey) is not as bad as one might have feared given the Katrina effect, which the BLS readily admits is hard to measure. The employment-population ratio fell […]
Republicans are split over how to pay for the Katrina-Rita relief and reconstruction efforts. President Bush wants to temporarily increase the deficit. Fiscal conservatives like Andrew Samwick have fiscal offsets in mind to avoid adding even more government debt to our children’s future. Jerry Bowyer sides with Bush: George W. Bush is not a Goldwater […]
Tax Analysts reports: Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on October 5 said he hopes to energize the tax reform debate with a proposal to replace the federal income tax with an 8.5 percent national retail sales tax on individual purchases and business profits … DeMint plans to introduce the bill, a hybrid of a retail sales […]
John Tamny continues the National Review’s gold bug obsession: In 1898 Knut Wicksell said there was “no need to waste words proving how important it is that the exchange value of money or, what is the same thing seen from the opposite angle, the general level of commodity prices, remains as stable and constant as […]
This sounds about right: Storms Show A System Out Of BalanceGOP Congress Has Reduced Usual Diet of Agency Oversight Congress… has had little appetite in recent years for executive branch oversight. And now, as lawmakers probe FEMA’s mistakes in responding to Katrina, they are waking up to the consequences of neglect. Government scholars and watchdog […]
Back in August, I somewhat tepidly endorsed John Roberts: Is Roberts really such a bad nominee? His record of arguing before the USSC, plus a bit of time as an appelate court judge, seem to make him well-qualified. And at least by Owen and Rogers-Brown standards, he’s not a giant nutbag. My thinking at the […]
CNN/Money reports: NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Some of the billions in windfall profits going to overseas oil producers are coming back to the United States in the form of foreign investment, according to a published report. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that oil exporters like Saudi Arabia are saving and investing far more and […]
Is the Club for Growth endorsing corruption? In their Tempers Flare in Red China, this club for rich people questions the intent of the Chinese government as expressed in this story: After 20 years of opening and reform, China has now come to a key stage of development,” said Ye Duchu, a professor at the […]
While the Unknown Professor may have a more favorable view of how Andrew McCarthy interpreted this Wall Street Journal story than I did, I agree with his statement: While a violation of insider trading laws requires a number of criteria to be met … at the minimum it requires that an insider initiate the trades […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that the starter rate for the one year Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) is now over 5% for the first time since early 2002. Click on graph for larger image. The above chart uses the month end rates as reported by the MBA. Interest rates bottomed in May/June 2003 and […]