Econ70

Taxing Discussion

12/17/2013

While 43% of the population pay no federal income taxes, down from 47% in 2010, two-thirds of that 43% pay payroll taxes, leaving just 14.4% of the population that pay no federal income or payroll taxes. Of those, two-thirds are…

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Better Budget

12/16/2013

During October and November 2013 the federal deficit was $231 billion, $61 billion better than a year earlier. Receipts were up by $34 billion to $380 billion and outlays were down by $27 billion. At this rate, the deficit for…

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Brilliance & Booze

12/13/2013

The Friday File: After controlling for numerous social-economic variables, studies in the US, UK and Denmark find that IQ at 16 is positively correlated with how much and how often you’ll drink alcohol throughout your life. While academics offer no…

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Kiev-Kremlin Conundrum

12/12/2013

The Ukrainians want to economically escape from Russia and without controlling Ukraine, Russia is no empire. Thus keeping Ukraine from Russia must be a strategic western objective. Making it easy, Ukrainian finances are a shambles and a balance-of-payments crisis will…

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Yield of Dreams

12/11/2013

The recent budget deal which reduces fiscal drag, along with improving employment numbers, the likelihood of faster growth in 2014 and the fact that long-term rates have adjusted to the idea that tapering will soon start, makes me peg the…

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Congressional Compromise

12/10/2013

The budget deal Senator Murray (D-WA) and Representative Ryan (R-WI) have crafted will reduce sequestration effects by 37% and allow agencies to determine how to implement the remaining 63%. The new policies are evenly split between fees and spending cuts…

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Labor Pains

12/09/2013

With GDP growth at 2% for the past several years and expected through Q1/14, the recent employment rise from about 150,000 net new jobs/month in summer to about 200,000/month since seems odd. It’s because firms are finally hiring because labor…

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Name Game

12/06/2013

The Friday File: In 1952, James was the most popular boys name given to 4.4% of all boys, while Linda was name number one for girls with 3.5% receiving it. By 2012, Jacob was tops but claimed only 0.94% of…

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Rocky Revision

12/05/2013

While Q3 GDP was revised up from 2.8% to 3.6%, hold the applause. Inventory growth was raised by 0.85%, essentially responsible for the entire increase. Worse, household spending was revised down from a growth rate of 1.5% to 1.4%, and…

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Bitcoin Bonanza

12/04/2013

By combining reliability, anonymity, file-sharing technology and peer-to-peer consensus to confirm transactions, Bitcoin is an amazing technology that fulfills a market need. I fully expect other copycat institutions with deeper pockets and more credibility to eventually follow. While Bitcoin has…

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