Tag Archives: Topic: Economy

NCPA Policy Digest: Only about 25 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds are currently working, a drop of 10 percentage points from just five years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Anna Cuevas at Huffington Post: Is there a correlation between divorce and foreclosure? Does foreclosure increase the likelihood of divorce, or does divorce increase the risk of foreclosure? The answer is both are probably true.

AP: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree: It would be a mistake to let interest rates on student loans double in July. Especially if they’re going to be blamed for it in an election year.

San Francisco Chronicle: UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco is reducing its first-year class by more than 20 percent this fall and eliminating 17 nonteaching jobs . . .

National Jurist: Law school applications have continued to drop — with the number of applicants down by 15.6 percent from last year. While the numbers are not final, it appears the total number of applicants will be down from 87,500 in 2010 to less than 67,000 this year.

William McGurn at the Wall Street Journal: Paul Ryan shocked the gentle souls at Georgetown University when he traveled up to their campus last Thursday and said: “We believe that Social Security legislation, now billed as a great victory for the poor and for the worker, is a great defeat for Christianity. It is an acceptance of the idea of force and compulsion.”

CNN: But over the past few decades, we’ve lost sight of Roosevelt’s words. It’s time to rethink the notion of family values and remember, as the story of Willy Loman reminds us, that a strong family starts with a strong economy.

Washington Post: Since the beginning of his term, state and local governments have shed 611,000 employees — including 196,000 educators — according to government statistics.

NCPA Policy Digest: The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in the fourth quarter of 2011 that the median full-time working woman made 81.6 percent of the wages of the median fulltime working man. Since then, big government, feminist organizations and liberal politicians repeat this “wage gap” statistic, implying that discrimination is its cause, says Carrie Lukas, managing director of the Independent Women’s Forum.

NCPA Policy Digest: Here’s some bad news: The latest report of the Social Security and Medicare trustees shows an unfunded liability for both programs of $63 trillion. That is equal to about 4.5 times the entire U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), says John C. Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Reuters: Many borrowers, particularly since late 2010, thought they were buying at the bottom of a housing market that had already suffered steep declines, but have been caught out by a continued fall in prices in wide swaths of America.

Findlaw: Newly released law school job-placement data is sparking renewed debate about postgraduate employment rates: Many schools report hiring their own graduates for jobs, straight out of law school.

The Hill: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Wednesday is expected to introduce an omnibus energy/federal land use bill combining several bills that have passed the House over the last year but have stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition.

LA Times: California’s population will grow much more slowly in the next few decades — and that is good news for the state’s still-struggling economy, according to new population projections by USC.

Christian Science Monitor: Older jobless workers have a higher rate of long-term unemployment than any other group. And employer policies end up discriminating against them. Yet workers age 50 and up comprise nearly a third of the US workforce. Policymakers must help this key demographic find good jobs.

AP: An aging population and an economy that has been slow to rebound are straining the long-term finances of Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two largest benefit programs.

AP: The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

Peggy Noon at Wall Street Journal (via Google): I’ve long thought that public dissatisfaction is about more than the economy, that it’s also about our culture, or rather the flat, brute, highly sexualized thing we call our culture. Now I’d go a step beyond that. I think more and more people are worried about the American character—who we are and what kind of adults we are raising. Every story that has broken through the past few weeks has been about who we are as a people. And they are all disturbing.

Rasumussen Reports: Consider this: Four years ago, 80 percent of homeowners thought their home was worth more than they paid for it. That number fell to 62 percent last fall and 49 percent today . . . But while the soft economy was the trigger, most homeowners recognize that the underlying cause of the housing crisis was a corrupt relationship between the federal government, elected politicians and well-connected financiers. While the housing market was collapsing, the financiers were getting bailed out.

Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal: The differences between America in 1936 and America 76 years later hardly matter. In a time of genuine economic anxiety, as now, Team Obama has chosen a plausible strategy: During tough times, the government will be there for you.

Ryan Messmore at the Heritage Foundation: Ryan believes his federal budget plan helps accomplish that goal. In a letter last year to then-Archbishop (now Cardinal) Timothy Dolan of New York, Ryan stated that his proposed budget better targets assistance to those in need, repairs the social safety net, and fulfills the mission of health and retirement security for all Americans.

CNSNews: Although he has served less than a term, Obama is now the first American president to see the federal government’s debt increase by more than $5 trillion during his time in office.

NCPA Policy Digest: Over the course of the last century, the United States slowly emerged as a formidable administrative state — one that is run by unelected federal government bureaucrats instead of the elected representatives of the people.

TIME: After a proposal to cut funding to Planned Parenthood sparked outrage in January, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation is having trouble attracting donors.

Heritage Foundation: In addition to today being Tax Day, it’s also, coincidentally, “Tax Freedom Day” — meaning that it has taken from January 1 until now for Americans to earn enough money to pay this year’s federal, state, and local tax bill — 29.2% of all our income. In other words, for the first 111 days of the year, everything you earned went straight to Uncle Sam. Compare that to back in 1900, when Americans paid only 5.9% of their income in taxes and Tax Freedom Day came on January 22.

Heritage Foundation: As of yesterday, the U.S. corporate tax rate of 39.2 percent claimed the world’s top spot, edging out Japan which recently lowered its rate from 39.5 percent to 36.8 percent.

Reuters on Yahoo: A Moroccan worker in Italy set himself on fire on Thursday in protest at not being paid for months, a day after an Italian businessman set himself alight over a tax dispute, police said.

The Hill: The House on Thursday is poised to approve Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget measure, which would give Republicans a much-needed lift after months of intra-party squabbling.

NCPA Policy Digest: On Sunday, the United States gets a distinction no nation wants — the world’s highest corporate tax rate. Japan, which currently has the highest rate in the world — a 39.8 percent rate on business income between national and local taxes — cuts its rate to 36.8 percent as of April 1. The U.S. rate stands at 39.2 percent when both federal and state rates are included, says CNN Money

Volokh Conspiracy: At the end of the opinion, the judge offers an op-ed of sorts about the market for legal services. He suggests that the real reason for the lawsuit is that the market for legal services has tanked, and that the plaintiffs are trying to blame their law school for not foreseeing the changes in the legal economy

The Atlantic: This past admissions cycle, amid a constant drumbeat of bad news about the health of the legal industry, it appears that fewer students sat down to take the LSAT than at any time in the past decade. In the last two years, the number of tests administered has dropped 24 percent . . .

Lisa McGirr at NY Times: In many of America’s once pristine suburbs, harbingers of inner-city blight — overgrown lots, boarded up windows, abandoned residences — are the new eyesores.

Financial Times: Tehran has warned Saudi Arabia several times over the last two months not to increase its oil production to offset the impact of the US and European sanctions on Tehran’s crude exports.

Reuters: The Republican budget plan would produce deficits totaling $3.13 trillion over the next 10 years — less than half the $6.39 trillion in deficits the Congressional Budget Office says Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget plan would rack up.

The Hill: President Obama’s 2013 budget would add $3.5 trillion to annual deficits through 2022, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

National Law Journal: We’ve ranked the top 50 law schools by the percentage of 2011 juris doctor graduates who took jobs at NLJ 250 firms, the nation’s largest by headcount as identified by The National Law Journal’s annual survey. We’ve also identified firm favorites — the schools where NLJ 250 firms recruited the most graduates. Finally, we have identified the law schools that saw the most alumni promoted to partner in 2011.

Michael J. Boskin and John F. Cogan at the Wall Street Journal: California’s rising standards of living and outstanding public schools and universities once attracted millions seeking upward economic mobility. But then something went radically wrong as California legislatures and governors built a welfare state on high tax rates, liberal entitlement benefits, and excessive regulation. The results, though predictable, are nonetheless striking.

The Hill (includes video): North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) called on Congress to quickly pass legislation to green-light the Keystone XL oil pipeline, arguing that the Obama administration is “killing energy development.”

Reuters: Banks are foreclosing on America’s churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data.

Gallup: As a result, Gallup’s U.S. underemployment measure, which combines the percentage of workers who are unemployed and the percentage working part time but wanting full-time work, increased to 19.1% in February from 18.7% in January. This is an improvement from the 19.9% of February 2011.

NCPA Policy Digest: In data compiled for a coming report, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the average inflation-adjusted hourly wage for male college graduates aged 23 to 29 dropped 11 percent over the past decade to $21.68 in 2011.

CBS: Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government’s widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.

Heritage Foundation The Foundry: But for Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu, those steep prices aren’t even a concern. In fact, he says his goal is not to get the price of gasoline to go down.

Washington Times: Home prices in 20 U.S. cities dropped more than forecast in December to the lowest level since the housing crisis began in mid-2006, indicating foreclosures are hampering the industry’s recovery.

Ed News: One in six 16 to 24-year-olds is now part of the unenviable NEET tribe – short for not in education, employment or training – according to data published by the Department for Education today.

Weekly Standard: The office of Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, sends along this chart, showing that ‘America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece,’ as well as Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain . . .

ABC: Air Force One – known in the military as VC-25 – costs $179,750 per flight hour alone in fiscal year 2012, Maj. Michelle Lai of the 89th Airlift Wing told ABC News.

The Daily Caller: The November decision to reject the construction plan “was the result of a decision made, to honor, the concerns of those in Nebraska, including the Republican governor … [that the pipeline] would threaten the water supply in Nebraska,” Carney said.

The Hill: Three House Democrats urged President Obama Wednesday to consider releasing oil from the country’s emergency stockpiles in order to lower gas prices.

Tampa CBS Local: Talk about pain at the pump! Some Florida drivers are spending nearly $6 a gallon to fill up their gas tanks.

George J. Marlin at the Catholic Thing: Millions of Catholics survived the Great Depression of the 1930s thanks to parishes and parochial schools. These institutions helped to prevent the emergence of a rebellious underclass by serving as social and educational centers. Priests and nuns instilled the moral direction necessary to maintain civility.

News from The Associated Press: So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans.

James Taranto at WSJ.com: Thus it is a fiction of economics to suggest that increased female labor-force participation was a new source of production. It was, instead, a reallocation of productive resources from homes to offices. No doubt on balance that has been a tonic for the commercial economy. But it has imposed significant social costs.

NYTimes.com: CHARLES MURRAY’S “Coming Apart,” the book that’s launched a thousand arguments this winter, is a brilliant work with an exasperating conclusion. What’s brilliant is Murray’s portrait, rich in data and anecdote, of the steady breakdown of what he calls America’s “founding virtues” — thrift and industriousness, fidelity and parental responsibility, piety and civic engagement — within America’s working class, and the personal and communal wreckage that’s ensued.

LifeSiteNews.com: Families are a witness to “faith, courage and optimism” when they welcome many children even amid today’s social environment, said Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday.

CNBC: One in every 624 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in January, up 3 percent from the previous month, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

Reuters: Rich Arzaga owns a luxury home in San Ramon, California, but he’s not betting on it as an investment.

The Christian Institute: Roughly £100 billion is spent each year dealing with problems relating to sexual promiscuity and relationship breakdown, according to research by the Jubilee Centre.

Breitbart: Soros warned against addressing the crisis with spending cuts, urging the injection of funds instead.

NY Daily News: The “systemic, ongoing fraud” is meant to mask the fact that “attending Brooklyn Law and forking nearly $150,000 in tuition payments is a terrible investment,” the four grads charged in a suit filed last week in Brooklyn Supreme Court

WSJ.com (access via Google): The message from Indiana and elsewhere is that aligning yourself too closely to unions is a losing strategy.

Heritage Foundation: When John F. Kennedy was President, just over a quarter of federal spending went to fund programs paying for some 21.7 million Americans to be dependent on Uncle Sam. But as high as that spending and dependence on the federal government was then, it has exploded today, with one in five Americans — more than 67.3 million — depending on Washington for assistance.

Investors.com: . . . 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.

ChicagoTribune.com: Three graduates of John Marshall Law School in Chicago sued the university Wednesday over claims that it inflated its post-graduate employment information to attract students.

USATODAY.com: The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the nation’s homeownership rate fell to 66% in the fourth quarter, continuing a seven-year drop from a fourth-quarter peak of 69.2% in 2004.

CNSnews.com: The amount of money the federal government takes out of the U.S. economy in taxes will increase by more than 30 percent between 2012 and 2014, according to the Budget and Economic Outlook published today by the CBO.

Telegraph: Michelle Obama has risked the wrath of cash-strapped Americans by indulging in a $50,000 shopping spree at Agent Provocateur.

Steven Aden at Townhall: The death business is booming, but we’re killing ourselves to make it happen.

NCPA Policy Digest: After four years of silence on the issue, the Labor Department has released a swathe of new regulations governing child labor in the agriculture sector. Citing injury and fatality reports from recent years, labor officials state that the new rules were proposed in order to protect youths from activities that have proven to be exceedingly dangerous, says USA Today.

The Guaridan The Observer: Viola Caon left her Italian home to find work. Now she returns to see how her former classmates are faring… and in the week that shocking figures showed how badly Europe’s youth is being hit by the unemployment crisis, we also talk to hard-hit twentysomethings in Athens and Madrid . . .

2011 GDP: 1.7%: That’s the final, pathetic growth number for 2011.

The Washington Post: The Commerce Department said Thursday new-home sales fell 2.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold in a healthy economy.

Washington Post

Wall Street Journal transcript.

NCPA Policy Digest: The Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) lax accounting standards obscure the fact that it is deeply insolvent with a capital shortfall of tens of billions of dollars.