Economy

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its baseline budget outlook through fiscal year 2022 on January 31. The analysis is as creditable to the CBO as its message is daunting to the nation. After squandering three years in which the signal consequences have been persistent high unemployment coupled with an… Read more

Private-sector job creation initially recovered from the recession at a normal rate, leading to predictions last year of a “Recovery Summer.” Since April 2010, however, net private-sector job creation has stalled. Within two months of the passage of Obamacare, the job market stopped improving. This suggests that businesses are not… Read more

Within hours of Richard Cordray assuming the role of director[1] at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), agency officials began exercising their newly expanded powers. Their immediate target is all manner of “nonbank”[2] financial services used by millions of households. While proponents contend that the new… Read more

As Congress debates raising the minimum wage, Congress should consider which workers-assuming that their jobs are not casualties of the higher minimum wage-the change would benefit. Data from the Department of Labor show that most minimum wage-earners are young, part-time workers and that relatively few live below the Poverty line. A minimum … Read more

The economy today is strong, but perceptions remain gloomy thanks to unrelenting negative rhetoric from some politicians in Washington. Despite the widely held view, on Wall Street and elsewhere, that the economy may be overheating, Senator John Kerry and the Democratic Party maintain that President George Bush has "the worst economic record since the… Read more

The following is Arthur Laffer's November 13 address to members of The Heritage Foundation's President's Club at the fall 2006 President's Club meeting, held at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, DC. You know, one thing I always loved, Ed, was when I followed Milton Friedman to the podium I could actually raise… Read more

When the government changes the law, individuals respond to those changes. Because of this, the true effects of a law often differ radically from its authors' intentions. For example, Congress created welfare to help the poor in times of need, but instead it created a cycle of dependence trapping low-income Americans in poverty. Similarly, raising the minimum… Read more

Supporters of raising the minimum wage argue it will raise the earnings of low-income workers. Labor unions are among the most prominent of these supporters, a fact that makes little intuitive sense, because very few union members work for the minimum wage. Unions, however, are not just being altruistic when they push to raise… Read more

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its baseline budget outlook through fiscal year 2022 on January 31. The analysis is as creditable to the CBO as its message is daunting to the nation. After squandering three years in which the signal consequences have been persistent high unemployment coupled with an… Read more

Within hours of Richard Cordray assuming the role of director[1] at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), agency officials began exercising their newly expanded powers. Their immediate target is all manner of “nonbank”[2] financial services used by millions of households. While proponents contend that the new… Read more

Last week, President Obama said he would soon propose a set of policies that would eliminate tax breaks for businesses that move jobs overseas and reward businesses that bring jobs to the U.S. as part of his new “insourcing” agenda. If the President proposes more of… Read more

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warns that a tax on certain financial transactions could “diminish the importance of the United States as a major financial market” and that, in the short run, “imposing the transaction tax would probably reduce output and employment.”[1] While these effects would be “mitigated”… Read more

The warning bells were sounded in early 2009: The U.S. government had to act swiftly and forcefully to avoid repeating Japan’s painful experience of sustained economic stagnation.[1] The Obama Administration’s policies have failed to this point, and Japanese-style long-term stagnation may well ensue unless a fundamental course correction… Read more

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Congress wants to help the unemployed, but extending the duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits slightly harms the economy. Raising benefits to 99 weeks has increased the unemployment rate by 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points.[1] … Read more

Judging by the accounts published to date, the “jobs” plan President Obama proposes Thursday night will likely include the typical set of infrastructure spending, school construction, aid for teachers, unemployment benefits, “targeted” tax breaks, and the like.[1] In other words, the President will call for more of the… Read more

Every year, no later than July 15, the White House is supposed to release an update on the economy and the state of the federal budget. In addition to its tardiness, the first essential feature of this year’s Mid-Session Review (MSR),[1] released by the White House on September… Read more