17 | August | 2012

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Stock market volatility index (VIX) falls to the lowest level since May 2007

Mark J. Perry | August 17, 2012, 11:56 pm

According to Freakonomics blogger and Yale professor Ian Ayres: “One of the most important but under-reported financial indicators is the CBOE’s Volatility Index (^VIX), which measures the market’s expectation of future volatility in stock prices (over the next 30 days). … read more >

Carpe Diem

Ticketmaster’s attempt to eliminate the secondary ticket market with ‘restrictive paperless ticketing’

Mark J. Perry | August 17, 2012, 4:31 pm

Ticketmaster is no stranger to controversy. Often criticized for its outrageous service fees, poor customer service and monopolistic control over the primary ticket industry, the ticketing giant — along with others in the ticket and live event industries — is … read more >

Carpe Diem

Economic data points

Mark J. Perry | August 17, 2012, 4:16 pm

1. From the American Association of Railroad’s weekly report on rail traffic: Lumber shipments were up by 19.8% vs. the same week last year (+12.2% YTD), petroleum products by 44.4% (+40.2% YTD), and motor vehicles and equipment by 19.2% (+21.4%). … read more >

Carpe Diem

Rail shipments in 2012: Coal is way down; oil, cars and lumber are way up

Mark J. Perry | August 17, 2012, 4:12 pm

Here’s some interesting data from this week’s report on U.S. rail traffic from the American Association of Railroads: 1. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis through the week ending August 11, total rail volume of 9,005,952 carloads this year is down … read more >

Pethokoukis

Faster, please: Why Romney and Ryan should double-down on Medicare reform, ASAP

James Pethokoukis | August 17, 2012, 12:43 pm

1. The Obama administration apparently does not believe America’s debt problem to be a near-term or medium-term problem. Its recent budget, for instance, would stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio at around 76% for the next decade (though the ratio would begin … read more >

Pethokoukis

When Democrats used to support stuff Paul Ryan likes, such as low taxes and pro-market Medicare reform

James Pethokoukis | August 17, 2012, 11:41 am

After a second crushing defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1984 — not to mention the booming economy created by Reagan’s pro-market policies — Democrats started to change. Started to become less statist. And strange things started happening. – In 1986, … read more >

Economics, Entitlements

Obama’s health-care reform cuts: How they affect Medicare patients

Andrew Biggs | August 17, 2012, 11:04 am

Here’s the problem: the government can pay what it wants, but it can’t force doctors to accept it. Doctors are already saying no to Medicaid, which pays doctors at lower rates than Medicare. read more >

Carpe Diem

Thanks to natural gas, market forces, technology, and private sector activity, C02 emissions drop to a 20-year low

Mark J. Perry | August 17, 2012, 10:47 am

From the Associated Press comes this story “CO2 Emissions In US Drop To 20-Year Low“: In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in … read more >

Pethokoukis

Pethokoukis Podcast: A chat about Medicare reform with Joe Antos

James Pethokoukis | August 17, 2012, 10:38 am

On this week’s Ricochet Money & Politics Podcast, my guest is Joe Antos, Medicare guru here at AEI. What is Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan? What’s Mitt Romney’s? What’s President Obama’s? Antos gives a brisk tour of those plans, as well as … read more >

Pethokoukis

Why Obama needs to ‘back down’ from using that TPC study to attack the Romney tax plan

James Pethokoukis | August 17, 2012, 10:26 am

A great, must-read blog post from AEI’s Matt Jensen on the latest update by the Tax Policy Center of its analysis of Mitt Romney’s tax plan. In fact, Jensen’s counter-analysis might have been a big reason for the update. 1. … read more >