02 | January | 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

Responding to Yuval Levin on the future of more tax hikes

James Pethokoukis | January 2, 2013, 3:40 pm

Yuval Levin is a reasonable guy. He looks at the above chart and draws a perfectly reasonable conclusion over at NRO: The idea that you can leave today’s spending trajectory in place and pay for it with rising taxes is … read more >

Pethokoukis

Did normalizing trade relations with China cost America 1.5 million jobs in 2001?

James Pethokoukis | January 2, 2013, 2:39 pm

While U.S. manufacturing output has continued to rise over recent decades, manufacturing employment has not. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. manufacturing employment fell from roughly 20 million in 1979 to 14 million in 2007 with more than half … read more >

Image Credit: Medill DC (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Economics, Pethokoukis

How will economic history judge Bernanke?

James Pethokoukis | January 2, 2013, 1:33 pm

Odds are Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke almost certainly won’t seek to be appointed to another four-year term in 2014. So 2013 represents his final lap around the track. How will economic historians judge his tenure running the central bank? … read more >

Image Credit: Austen Hufford (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Economics, Pethokoukis

Why the Obama tax hikes have only just begun

James Pethokoukis | January 2, 2013, 12:23 pm

When an economy is booming and jobs are plentiful, a “do no harm” approach to public policy will suffice. If GDP were expanding at a 4% annual rate, the unemployment rate were at 5%, and the national debt were low, … read more >

Image Credit: Michael Raphael (FEMA Photo Library)

Economics, U.S. Economy

The best op-ed of the year

Henrik Temp | January 2, 2013, 12:00 pm

According to Tom Keene, host of Bloomberg Surveillance on Bloomberg TV, the best op-ed of 2012 was penned by Dean Baker and AEI’s Kevin Hassett back in May. Titled “The Human Disaster of Unemployment” and published in the New York … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis

Welcome to 2013 and your $200 billion tax hike — and more uncertainty

James Pethokoukis | January 2, 2013, 11:11 am

Forget about budgetary baselines for a second. What will Americans pay in taxes this year vs. last year in light of the fiscal cliff deal? Well, let’s run the numbers (with some help from JPMorgan): – Payroll tax hike: $125 … read more >

Carpe Diem

US drilling boom for shale oil is remaking America’s energy picture and has brought net oil imports to a 20-year low

Mark J. Perry | January 2, 2013, 9:45 am

From the WSJ last Friday: “U.S. crude imports fell 9.2% in October from a year earlier to 8.091 million barrels a day, the lowest amount of imported crude since January 2000, according to U.S. Department of Energy data released today … read more >

Photo Credit: MPD01605 (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Foreign and Defense Policy, Europe and Russia

The worst of the European economic crisis lies ahead

Desmond Lachman | January 2, 2013, 9:27 am

Hope springs eternal amongst European policymakers. As yet another example of such hope, last week Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schauble, joined a chorus of other European policymakers in asserting that the worst of the European economic crisis was now behind … read more >

Economics, Free Enterprise

The value of political connections

Sita Slavov | January 2, 2013, 9:16 am

Rent seeking is a widespread phenomenon that wastes resources. This research provides valuable insight into how that process works by quantifying the importance of personal political connections in lobbying. read more >

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