Front Porches Now Ground Zero in Property Rights Fight

COMMENT:  This article is not strictly about the economy but the topic discussed is central to the future success of the American economy and the possibility of a rising standard of living.

 

During five tours as a U.S. adviser in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ethan Dean considered it part of his mission to model and promote basic democratic values in the war-torn nations. Ink-stained purple finger principles like free elections, universal education, and individual rights the rest of us often take for granted.

As did Dean, until he got a “Dear John” letter of sorts during his fourth deployment — not from a wife or girlfriend, but the City of Winona, Minnesota.

Authorities in the southeastern Minnesota city informed Dean that he was breaking a law he’d never heard of: Renting his house without a permit in contravention of an ordinance capping rental properties at 30 percent of homes per block.

READ MORE:  http://reason.com/archives/2013/04/21/front-porches-now-ground-zero-in-propert?utm_source=Mercury+One+Memberships&utm_campaign=f357051906-The_Soapbox_3_29_2013_3_28_2013&utm_medium=email

Natural gas prices rise from historic lows

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Wholesale natural gas prices have doubled during the last year, and that's bringing sighs of relief from an unusual variety of interests.

Soaring production and an unusually warm winter sent prices plunging to under $2 per thousand cubic feet last spring, prompting some to wonder whether the natural gas boom would kill demand for both coal and new renewable energy.

But natural gas is now just over $4 per thousand cubic feet. Energy experts say prices in the $4 or $5 range won't affect the increasing use of the fuel by consumers and industry since the price was $8 just a few years ago. In Europe and Asia prices are even higher — $10 to $14.

READ MORE:   http://bigstory.ap.org/article/natural-gas-prices-rise-historic-lows

Tax-free Internet shopping jeopardized by bill

Vote shows strong support in Senate to allow states to collect taxes from Internet sales

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tax-free shopping on the Internet could be in jeopardy under a bill making its way through the Senate. 

The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives. 

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers a big advantage over brick-and-mortar stores. 

The Senate voted 74 to 20 Monday to take up the bill. If that level of support continues, the Senate could pass the bill as early as this week.

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt. 

READ MORE:  http://news.yahoo.com/tax-free-internet-shopping-jeopardized-063059401.html;_ylt=A2KJ2UZManZR6xcAW6HQtDMD

The Internet Sales Tax Rush

Harry Reid and Wal-Mart hope nobody will notice their online revenue raid. 

 

Every time Congress has taken a serious look at proposals to boost Internet sales taxes, it has rejected them. That's probably why pro-tax Senators are trying to rush through an online tax hike with as little consideration as possible.

As early as Monday, the Senate will vote on a bill that was introduced only last Tuesday. The text of this legislation, which would fundamentally change interstate commerce, only became available on the Library of Congress website over the weekend. And you thought ObamaCare was jammed through Nancy Pelosi's Democratic House in a hurry.

For Senators curious about what they're voting on, it is the same flawed proposal that Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) introduced in February. It has been repackaged to qualify for a Senate rule that allows Majority Leader Harry Reid to bypass committee debate and bring it straight to the floor. 

READ MORE:  http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324493704578432961601644942-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html

Health Actuaries: Obamacare Rates Will Soar

But health law supporters are pushing back, noting close ties between the actuaries making the forecasts and an insurance industry that has been complaining about taxes.

(Kaiser Health News) — Few aspects of the Affordable Care Act are more critical to its success than affordability, but in recent weeks experts have predicted costs for some health plans could soar next year.
Now health law supporters are pushing back, noting close ties between the actuaries making the forecasts and an insurance industry that has been complaining about taxes and other factors it says will lead to rate shock for consumers.

"Most actuaries in this country -- what percentage are employed by insurance companies?" Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, asked an actuary last week at a hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

The committee was discussing a study published last month by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) predicting that, thanks to sicker patients joining the coverage pool, medical claims per member will rise 32 percent in the individual plans expected to dominate the ACA exchanges next year. In some states costs will rise as much as 80 percent, the report said.

READ MORE:  http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/health-actuaries-obamacare-rates-will-soar.aspx

IMF warns world economy risks chronic new phase of financial crisis

Report finds financial system is only part-fixed and further action is needed to tackle underlying threats to stability

 

The International Monetary Fund has warned that new risks to global financial stability are already emerging before the problems left by the deepest slump since the 1930s have been sorted out.

In its half-yearly healthcheck on the financial system, the Fund said failure to deal with old and new risks risked propelling the five-year old crisis into a fresh chronic phase.

José Viñals, the IMF's financial counsellor) said the improvement in financial markets seen over the past six months would not be sustained unless policy makers addressed "key underlying vulnerabilities".

READ MORE:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/17/imf-world-economy-risk-new-financial-crisis

China economic growth lower than forecast

China's economy, the world's second-largest, has slowed and performed worse than many analysts expected in the first three months of the year. 

Annual growth was 7.7% in the January to March quarter, compared with 7.9% in the previous three months. Analysts had forecast a figure closer to 8%.

China wants to spur growth after it hit a 13-year low in 2012.

Other key data on Monday also came in lower than market expectations, raising questions over the outlook for growth.

Industrial output rose 8.9% in March from a year earlier, much lower than analysts' targets of 10%.

READ MORE:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22148991http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22148991

China's economy will be No. 1 in less than 20 years, US study says

WASHINGTON - China's economy is likely to surpass the United States in less than two decades while Asia will overtake North America and Europe combined in global power by 2030, a U.S. intelligence report said on Monday.

"Meanwhile, the economies of Europe, Japan, and Russia are likely to continue their slow relative declines," it said.

The report, "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds," was issued by the National Intelligence Council, an analytical arm of the U.S. government's Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In addition to U.S. intelligence analysts, the report includes the views of foreign and private experts.

READ MORE:  http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/chinas-economy-will-be-no-1-less-20-years-us-1C7511557

Completely Predictable

Government Spending Per Household Exceeds Median Household Income

Terence Jeffrey

As reported in my new book, “Completely Predictable,” the combined spending of federal, state and local governments per American household actually exceeded the median household income for 2010, which is the latest year for which all relevant government data are available.

In fiscal 2010, according to numbers published by the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), net spending by all levels of government in the United States was $5,942,988,401,000. That equaled $50,074 for each one of the 118,682,000 households in the country.

In that same year, according to the Census Bureau, the median household income was $49,445.

READ MORE:  http://www.sumnerbooks.com/books/view/completely-predictable

People Not In Labor Force Soar By 663,000 To 90 Million, Labor Force Participation Rate At 1979 Levels

Things just keep getting worse for the American worker, and by implication US economy, where as we have shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability and various welfare and entitlement checks, than to work .The best manifestation of this: the number of people not in the labor force which in March soared by a massive 663,000 to a record 90 million Americans who are no longer even looking for work. This was the biggest monthly increase in people dropping out of the labor force since January 2012, when the BLS did its census recast of the labor numbers. And even worse, the labor force participation rate plunged from an already abysmal 63.5% to 63.3% - the lowest since 1979! But at least it helped with the now painfully grotesque propaganda that the US unemployment rate is "improving."

READ MORE:  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-05/people-not-labor-force-soar-663000-90-million-labor-force-participation-rate-1979-le

Eagle Ford Shale provided $61B economic boost to South Texas

AUSTIN — Last year, the Eagle Ford Shale had a $61 billion impact and supported 116,000 jobs across a 20-county swath of South Texas – a once sleepy region increasingly defined by an oil and gas boom.

The latest numbers from an ongoing University of Texas at San Antonio study continue to show a ballooning financial effect as the industry races to drill oil wells in the region.

The results of the study were released Tuesday at a meeting of the Eagle Ford Shale Caucus at the Texas Legislature, a group of South Texas lawmakers hoping to bring attention to the road, water, health and other infrastructure needs brought on by the influx of workers and truck traffic into the region.

READ MORE:  http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/03/26/eagle-ford-shale-provided-61-billion-economic-boost-to-south-texas/

Wall Street Journal’s Crony Capitalist Conference Turns Sour

Times have changed since the Wall Street Journal held its first “ECO:nomics—Creating Environmental Capital” conference at the super-swanky Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara.  I was there in 2008 (but, alas, stayed at the Best Western in downtown Santa Barbara) when several hundred investors and corporate CEOs listened to leading crony capitalists, including Jeff Immelt of GE, James Rogers of Duke Energy, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, and John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers (where Al Gore was also a partner), smugly explain how they were going to strike it rich off the backs of consumers and taxpayers with green energy subsidies and mandates, federal loan guarantees, and the higher energy prices that would make renewable energy competitive with coal, oil, and natural gas once cap-and-trade was enacted.

This year’s sixth annual conference, which I didn’t attend, was also held at the Bacara Resort, but the mood was apparently different.  Yesterday, the Journal ran a six-page supplement that summarized the conference’s highlights.  The lead article by John Bussey was headlined: “Green Investing: So Much Promise, So Little Return: At The Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference, the talk was about all the innovations taking place in renewable energy—and about all the investors who are losing interest.”

READ MORE:  http://www.globalwarming.org/2013/03/27/wall-street-journals-crony-capitalist-conference-turns-sour/

Seen At 11: Groups Of Adults Turn To Cooperative Households To Save Money

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — With the cost of living on the rise and showing no sign of slowing down, total strangers desperate to save money are moving in together.

As CBS 2’s Dana Tyler reported Tuesday, older adults and even families are using this method to pool their resources. And the new communities are redefining the modern family.

Two million Americans over the age of 30 now live with a housemate or roommate, and shared households make up 18 percent of U.S. households – a 17 percent increase since 2007.

READ MORE:   http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/26/seen-at-11-groups-of-adults-turn-to-cooperative-households-to-save-money/

Study: Health law to raise claims cost 32 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new study finds that insurance companies will have to pay out an average of 32 percent more for medical claims on individual health policies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

What does that mean for you?

It could increase premiums for at least some Americans.

If you are uninsured, or you buy your policy directly from an insurance company, you should pay attention.

But if you have an employer plan, like most workers and their families, odds are you don't have much to worry about.

READ MORE:  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-27-07-01-19

IER President urges US Governors to Support Pro-Growth Energy Policies

WASHINGTON D.C. — IER President Thomas Pyle sent letters to all 50 U.S. governors this week, detailing how pro-growth policies for energy development on federal lands could redound to the economic prosperity of their states.

The letters represent the next phase of IER’s nation-wide strategy to educate policy makers and the American people about the opportunity for economic prosperity that more oil and gas leasing on federal lands would create. In each letter, Pyle references state-specific data concerning budget deficits and prolonged unemployment to bolster the case for expanded energy production on federal lands.

Citing facts from IER’s recently released report, “Beyond the Congressional Budget Office: The Additional Economic Effects of Immediately Opening Federal Lands to Oil and Gas Leasing,” Pyle challenged the governors that it is their “duty to fight for public policies that improve the standard of living” for their states’ residents. By embracing a pro-growth agenda for energy development on federal lands, the states can “create real opportunities for high-paying jobs and drastically increased tax revenues.”

READ MORE:  http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/03/21/ier-president-urges-u-s-governors-to-support-pro-growth-energy-policies/

Govt. Spends More on Disability than Food Stamps, Welfare Combined

In an eye-opening six-month investigation into America’s disability program, Planet Money reporter Chana Joffe-Walt uncovered a “disability industrial complex” fraught with fraud that churns out 14 million checks every month to citizens the government has deemed disabled.   

“Since the economy began its slow, slow recovery in late 2009, we’ve been averaging about 150,000 jobs created per month,” said Joffe-Walt in an Public Radio International (PRI) “This American Life” interview. “In that same period every month, almost 250,000 people have been applying for disability.”

READ MORE:  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/25/Govt-Spends-More-On-Disability-Than-Food-Stamps-And-Welfare-Combined

Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief

The new policy will alarm hundreds of thousands of British expatriates who live and have transferred their savings, proceeds from house sales and other assets to eurozone bank accounts in countries such as France, Spain and Italy.

The euro fell on global markets after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, told the FT and Reuters that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.

"If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be 'Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?'," he said.

"If the bank can't do it, then we'll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we'll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders."

READ MORE:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9952979/Cyprus-bail-out-savers-will-be-raided-to-save-euro-in-future-crises-says-eurozone-chief.html

Cyprus banks remain closed to avert run on deposits

(Reuters) - The president of Cyprus assured his people a bailout deal he struck with the European Union was in their best interests, but banks will remain closed until Thursday - and even then subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits.

Returned from fraught negotiations in Brussels, President Nicos Anastasiades said late on Monday the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) rescue plan agreed there in the early hours of the morning was "painful" but essential to avoid economic meltdown.

 

He agreed to close down the second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular, and inflict heavy losses on big depositors, many of them Russian, after Cyprus's outsize financial sector ran into trouble when its investments in neighboring Greece went sour.

European leaders said a chaotic national bankruptcy that might have forced Cyprus from the euro and upset Europe's economy was averted - though investors in other European banks are alarmed by the precedent of losses for depositors in Cyprus.

READ MORE:   http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-cyprus-parliament-idUSBRE92G03I20130325

Big Five UK banks see profits for 2012 'wiped out'

The major UK banks saw a 45% rise in core profits in 2012, but that hike was wiped out by a mix of regulation and their own mistakes, a KPMG report says.

Its performance report looks at Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and Standard Chartered.
It says the banks' combined core profits last year were £31.5bn.

But this was eliminated by the "cost of past mistakes and increased creditworthiness of their own debt", the audit firm's report says.

"Dire"
 
This development meant that the major banks actually saw their statutory profits slump 40% on the previous year, at £11.7bn, KPMG added.

READ MORE:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21916653