Bloomberg says some Wall Street protesters trying to destroy jobs

This article talks about the different views on the Wall Street protestors, and how its spreading to other areas. Although there overall goals for protesting is not clearly states, issues regarding taxing and regulation have been a reoccurring theme. Politics hovers around to determine if it is American or not while the effort in itself diminishes in its affect to influence the government.

Unemployment: What is to Be Done About It?

In an article in the NY Times the issue on whether the unemployment benefits period should be increased under President Obama’s Jobs bill was under scrutiny. The article provided input from several members of the working force who have been unemployed for extended periods of time and felt that the unemployment benefits period should not be increased. Some of these people even refused to apply for the benefits saying that it was like an incentive to not look for work.

As we progress through the material in this NIBC course we have encountered the issue of unemployment. Though we know that the intentions of the President are to help the unemployed he at the same time may be hurting them. This extension of the benefits period may increase frictional unemployment as people may be less willing to look for new jobs given they have some source of funding for their survival and also people may also extend gain from these benefits by not accepting job offers immediately. However, some have argued that the actual increase in unemployment that this extension of benefits has is quite small. They say this because extension on benefits can only be received if the recipient is actively looking for a job.

The Fed on Facebook?

Here's one for the conspiracy people. The fed now wants to track when it is being talked about across the major social media platforms. They claim that this is in an effort to monitor the perception of how the fed is performing. I would see that as a valid point, however, is monitoring conversations on Facebook really the best way to do this? A quote from the text summarizes this article well. "In other words, the Federal Reserve wants to develop a highly sophisticated system that will gather everything that you and I say about the Federal Reserve on the Internet and that will analyze what our feelings about the Fed are." I think the fed has better things to worry about. You can make the argument that expectations matter, but why go to a weak secondary source to get this information? That is, people (Facebook) who really aren't educated on what they are talking about ( for the most part). They look to implement this system in December of 2012.

Majority of Millionaires Support Millionaire Surtax: Survey

This is an interesting article that explains how Americans from different income classes feel about a millionaire tax. A survey done by the Harrison Group showed that as income increase, people are more likely to support a millionaire tax. That is, a person who has an income of more than $1 million is more likely to support the tax than a person who makes $100,000.

Senate, House Step Up China Pressure

Since we talked about nominal and real interest rate and use Yuan in many examples in class I think this article fits very well.

US is trying to bring out bills that penalize countries such as China, who manipulate their own currencies to help the country grows bigger and stronger. By doing this many countries will be affect from this action. Jobs are lose everyday and the Yuan are raising at 4% this year.

This is also a political issue between the Democrats and Republicans. Obama wanted the bill to pass. I think by having the bill pass it will cause a trade war. We will have to see what will happen.

Investment and lobbying

This is a really interesting article and shows how cut off wall street is from real America.
The lobbying index has outperformed the S&P which somewhat tells us the direction that some companies are moving in.

A good example of inequality in America.

Taxation and class war

This is a well written article, however, Taxing the rich a bit less could also have it's benefits. For example, one has not thought about the benefits of taxing more prosperous Americans at lower rates than the average person? For example, when wealthier Americans are paying 15%, they can spend more, and more spending means more investment. More investment would create more employment and more income for people and that could lead to economic growth. The wealthier citizens could also contribute a higher proportion to charities, hospitals, street shelters and educational institutions and many other institutions the underclass needs but for which the government doesn't pay.

A higher taxx rate could even discourage people to work harder as they feel they are earning less. And if these wealthy individuals are seen giving their fair share, then there will be civil peace as well because there will be a lesser probability of an angry underclass, as for example has happened in many European countries recently.

Plus, the other issue is perceived fairness. If more prosperous Americans are seen to be contributing their fair share, then there is less chance that they and their property will be attacked, in civil unrest, by an angry underclass, as was the case in 1917 in St. Petersburg, or as happened in several European nations in the last year.

The ravages of time (On Long-term Unemployment)

This article is about how the Long-tem Unemployment in the US is getting worse. This could be seen as a warning flag for many future The US spends a much lesser proportion of their GDP on labor polices like training programs compared to many other countries; This can may become a big problem for the US because the more a person is remained unemployed, the harder it will become for him to get employed. As more people become unemployed for a lengthier period of time, poverty too may inevitably rise, and an income-gap may widen. Those on the lower end of the spectrum may not then be able to give their children an good education because of low income and that may lead to loss of skill and potential future growth.

I think the US should focus on developing policies to help solve these problems of the growth in long term unemployment lest it becomes something too huge too handle....

A Tariff On China

The Senate recently backed a bill which would raise tariffs on imported Chinese products as a punishment for China keeping its currency artificially low. The argument behind the bill is that by keeping its currency’s value low China is luring jobs away from America, compounding the current job crisis in the US. Some believe that this tariff could create up to 1.6 million new jobs in the United States.

Still, others fear that the bill, if passed into law, would do more harm than good. Some fear that a trade war with China would ensue, others think that the bill would increase consumer prices, and the president of the US-China Business Council even said that the bill would be “a jobs bill for Vietnam”, believing that companies would simply shift to other counties with low wages, instead of the US.

Green Tech Helps Chevron Produce Oil

Chevron has constructed a solar thermal "power tower" to help recover oil from fields in Colinga, California. Almost 8,000 mirrors focus the sun's rays on the tower, which turns water into steam. The steam from the tower then is injected into the ground to help the oil move more freely, increasing recovery efficiency. Previously, the steam was produced by burning natural gas, a process that added to carbon emissions. The new solar steam does not produce carbon, and therefore helps Chevron's image as a environment friendly company.
While the idea of solar steam is a good one, the technology is costly and takes up a large area. Chevron reported a $40 million loss on the project as of last march. The site also takes up over 64 acres of land. Will power towers like this come to replace traditional means of steam production? Probably not in the near future, but maybe some day down the road.

Car Sales Jumped in September

With this current economic situation surprisingly car sales of Chrysler, GM, and Ford roses last month in the States. This can be a good sign for unemployment rate in Detroit. Chrysler sales went up 27%, 20% for GM and 9% for Ford. The total of car sales in this industry in the highest since April.

This is the first month for factory and plants to run fully after the earthquake in March and the Tsunami in Japan which affected the producing capacity for Toyota and Honda.

The industry are recovering. Honda and Toyota starts to have their car back on stock. People are willing to buy bigger cars since gas prices are cheaper. This can be a good sign that people are spending more buying bigger things which might help with the economy. I wonder how long will this last but the car dealers are confident that this will be a long term thing.

New Military Chief Talks Economics

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expresses his concern about how the military is affecting the economy. This comes out through his act of returning to his alma mater to gain more knowledge on the subject of economics. Though not in control of the size of the military he sees where it is best for the economy for it to shrink so as to reduce national defense expense but also acknowledges the difficulties in reducing military size at this time. When do we expect to see a decrease in the military budget amidst this time of financial crisis?

The President’s Search for Wall Street Supporters

In an article today in the New York Times, President Obama’s attempt to gain the support of Wall Street’s big wigs did not seem to go as well as hoped. The article suggests that the fund raiser held for President Obama by Warren Buffet did not attract a more diversified crowd of supporters from Wall Street and that most were Buffet supporters. There is also mention of the decline in support that the president has from financial heads, with them switching to support other groups. It seems as though the Obama administration is in need of more supporters which it isn’t finding. Is Mr. Buffet going to be enough to help them be on top?

The Money Flow From Households to Health Care Providers

The flow of money through health care in the United States is complicated, with many detours on the way from households, which ultimately pay for all of the nation’s health care, to providers. It is a fact that government insurance programs have played an increasing role in the overall health care money flow. The complex pathways in the chart showing the flow of funds would be reduced to a single path of private households paying taxes to the federal government which then pays the providers of health care. This simple path greatly reduces the costs and complexity of moving these funds, especially when compared to the flow through private insurers

Podcast: European Debt, a Tax Plan and General Motors

The article says that a resolution of the Greek financial crisis is not in sight. Approval of new powers for a stopgap bailout fund depends on the approval of all 17 members of the euro zone. Many other countries still need to vote and that even if they approve the strengthening of the fund, further remedies for Greece — requiring many further votes — will undoubtedly be required. The global economy, meanwhile, appears to be losing steam. Growth of the underground economy will only hinder Greece's recovery and it almost is admitting throwing in the towel on the euro.