Government Surveillance by Regulation

Posted on 6 April 2018 by eehines

Loosely related to a nearby post, now it seems the government is getting worried about the size of the “private” capital market, where folks can place investments in enterprises, particularly startups, without having to go through the public—stock—markets and government regulations that are broadly extensive and deeply intrusive.

The boom is transforming how companies grow, concentrating investing in fewer hands and raising concerns about oversight

The linked-to article’s subhead lays out the whole misunderstanding. Government doesn’t need to be in the business of regulating every little thing we do. We can manage our investments just fine without Government’s “help.” And we can suffer our own outcomes if we choose badly or fortune moves against us despite our otherwise correct decisions.

This is a preview of Government Surveillance by Regulation. Read the full post (254 words, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

Standards and Markets

Posted on 5 April 2018 by eehines

The EPA has decided to revisit, revise, and lower fuel efficiency standards for cars sold in the US for the model years 2022-2025. The Obama administration EPA had mandated that overall fleet fuel efficiency—averaged across all models of cars built by a manufacturer—be raised to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 from 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016. This would have represented a greater than 50% increase in fuel efficiency in just 10 short years.

Environmentalists are up in arms over the move. Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund President:

This is a preview of Standards and Markets. Read the full post (444 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Readiness Capability

Posted on 31 March 2018 by eehines

There’s a dismaying graph in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal that illustrates the combat readiness of several of NATO nations’ forces.

In essence,

If Europe came into conflict with Russia, only several thousand of the more than one million troops in its armies would be ready for rapid deployment, military planners fear.

Plans to correct this (using the term loosely) don’t come close to the capability regularly exercised during the Cold War, when the US planned for moving 10 divisions into Europe within 10 days. Current planning goal is to feed dribs and drabs into the furnace.

This is a preview of Readiness Capability. Read the full post (465 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The Fed and Inflation

Posted on 29 March 2018 by eehines

There was a Letter to the Editor in a recent Wall Street Journal that talked about a “half-truth” that inflation is “always” a result of rapid economic growth and low unemployment.

The Fed’s obsession with its arbitrary 2% inflation target compels them to argue that higher inflation is desirable because it is always linked to stronger economic growth. The governors simply ignore evidence to the contrary, such as in 2017 when, after the first quarter, growth accelerated and unemployment fell, yet inflation rates declined.

This is a preview of The Fed and Inflation. Read the full post (258 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

Idiocy in the Nanny State

Posted on 26 March 2018 by eehines

Starting in May, the Food and Drug Administration will require chains like Applebee’s and TGI Fridays to list calories next to all their menu items. That includes alcohol.

Because we need to know that stuff. Or so says Government. And of course, we’ll pay for that knowledge in higher prices for our drinks, because generating and posting that information—and defending against lawsuits over trivial errors in the postings—doesn’t come free.

Never mind that most of us don’t care. Nana Government knows better.

This is a preview of Idiocy in the Nanny State. Read the full post (162 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Credit Reports and Tax Liens

Posted on 24 March 2018 by eehines

The thee major credit reporting firms, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, are moving to eliminate records of tax liens from their credit data and credit reports.

The three companies, which provide vital, behind-the-scenes services in consumer credit, have been grappling with class-action lawsuits over their handling of consumers’ tax liens and judgment information.

This is a mistake. The right answer is to defend, actively, those suits that are wrong, rather than to surrender to the extortion of lawfare, and to correct the mishandlings of the tax liens in their data and reports.

This is a preview of Credit Reports and Tax Liens. Read the full post (269 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

The Anti-Competitive EU

Posted on 23 March 2018 by eehines

Now the European Commission wants to tax “behemoth” digitally-oriented multinational companies for doing business within the EU. The only companies that fit the EC’s definition of behemoth—large firms with annual worldwide revenue above €750 million ($922 million) and annual taxable EU revenues above €50 million ($61.5 million)—are American companies like Alphabet through its Google subsidiary, Apple, and Amazon.com.

That taxable EU revenue is key here.

The EU says these firms have exploited loopholes in tax laws and managed to lower their tax bills by shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions within the EU such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

This is a preview of The Anti-Competitive EU. Read the full post (295 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

Teachers Pensions and Misapprehensions

Posted on 21 March 2018 by eehines

State-funded teachers pensions are in peril around the nation from a combination of State governments over-promising, union demands and refusals to recognize economic realities, and those economic realities. Kentucky provides an example of that, without going into the relative impacts of those three factors to the overall outcome, and of a critical misapprehension.

Kentucky has more than 175,000 active and inactive or retired teachers in the State’s teacher retirement program, and it has a $14.5 billion funding deficit—more than $85,000 per teacher. The State was able to cover 88% of its agreed contribution to its program in 2007 and now can only cover 56%. In response, Governor Matt Bevin (R) has proposed

This is a preview of Teachers Pensions and Misapprehensions. Read the full post (503 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

A Fiduciary Rule

Posted on 21 March 2018 by eehines

The Obama Labor Department, under the suzerainty of Tom Perez who is now the Progressive-Democratic National Committee Chairman, enacted a rule that allowed individuals to hale into court principals of employer or union retirement plans for the crime of charging commissions for their actions. The rule also redefined “investment advice fiduciaries” to include broker-dealers and financial-insurance agents whose activities are limited to selling financial products.

The 5^th Circuit struck the rule as illegal. That’s good news for all of us.

However.

The Trump Labor Department has said it won’t enforce the rule and is working with the SEC on a new one….

This is a preview of A Fiduciary Rule. Read the full post (189 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Banking Reform

Posted on 19 March 2018 by eehines

The Senate has passed a bill that greatly diminishes Dodd-Frank’s interference with our banking industry by easing the regulatory burden on financial institutions lesser than the half-dozen or so that have been (mistakenly, IMNSHO) designated systemically important.

There’s concern about the willingness of the Progressive-Democrats who voted for it (including voting to get it past cloture) to vote for it again were it to come back from the House changed in any way. Republican Senators, as a result, want the House to pass the bill as it is, without alteration or delay.

This is a preview of Banking Reform. Read the full post (261 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

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Category Archives: political economy