Weekly Economic Update: October 16 – October 20, 2017
The Weekly Economic Update's Chart of the Week features a look at Post-War U.S. Economic Expansions. Removing artificial obstacles to economic growth is critical and that includes reforming taxes and regulations.
Fueling Tomorrow’s Digital Trade Boom
The Joint Economic Committee’s hearing on The Dynamic Gains from Free Digital Trade for the U.S. Economy highlighted bipartisan agreement on digital trade’s importance for the U.S. economy and the critical role American leadership plays in reducing trade barriers, fostering international regulatory ...
Social Capital, the Opioid Crisis, and Deaths of Despair
Today, the Social Capital Project released a new video promo for our work on opioids and deaths of despair. The video (embedded below) is narrated by Senator Mike Lee, Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, which houses the Social Capital Project.
Weekly Economic Update: October 9 – October 13, 2017
A recent Economic Innovation Group (EIG) study estimated that U.S. startups averaged 511,000 per year between 2000 and 2006. An earlier EIG study (p. 29), found that each new business creates an average of six new jobs. In 2015 alone, the missing startups translate to 600,000 missing jobs.
September 2017 Jobs Review
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma severely affected the payroll jobs numbers (Puerto Rico is not in the survey). 33,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were lost in September, which was worse than expected. Wages and labor force participation rose; the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%.
Weekly Economic Update: October 2 – October 6, 2017
The Chart of the Week shows the inverse relationship between tax changes and economic output. An exogenous tax increase equal to 1% of GDP lowers output to a maximum of just over 3% ten quarters later.
Four Takeaways from CBO’s Health Insurance Subsidy Report
On September 14, 2017, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on federal subsidies for health insurance coverage for people under 65 years of age. CBO’s findings are insightful regarding the current state of health insurance in the United States; the federal government’s spending on...
Weekly Economic Update: September 25 – September 29, 2017
This chart of the week shows why quantitative easing, which the Fed will begin to unwind in October, did not lead to inflation.
CBO Provides Another Reason Tax Reform is Urgent: Corporate Inversions
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently analyzed “corporate inversions,” transactions in which a U.S. company that does business in other nations merges with a foreign company and switches its country of incorporation to one with lower tax rates.
September FOMC Review
The FOMC kept the federal funds rate target range at 1.00-1.25%, as expected. Inflation remains below the Fed’s 2% target and is slowing, leading the Fed to pause after June’s rate hike. The FOMC announced that it will commence shrinking its balance sheet in October.
