Economy Donald Marron
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America's broken budget process
Yes, the government's open, but the budget battle isn't over yet. Congressional negotiators have until mid-December to craft a budget plan. Even if they strike a deal on time, it won't be enough, Marron says. The budget process is broken and it's time to fix it.
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Treasury nixes $1 trillion platinum coin
Neither Treasury nor Federal Reserve believes its legal to use platinum coins to avoid debt-limit increase, Treasury spokesman says. With $1 trillion platinum coin out, administration ponders other debt-limit strategies.
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$1 trillion coin: Should Obama exploit the Treasury's platinum loophole?
A $1 trillion coin could provide an answer to America's debt limit woes. Marron explores how the $1 trillion coin could work, and whether or not President Obama should take advantage of it.
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The entrepreneur as prospector
Entrepreneurs have one fundamental goal – to find an unmet need in the market, Dr. Cornwall writes.
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Shapley and Roth get the Nobel Prize for economic engineering
Lloyd Shapely and Alvin Roth got a much-deserved Nobel prize for their work on designing markets, Marron writes.
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Five things you should know about Mitt Romney’s '$5 trillion tax cut'
Donald Marron offers his perspective on Mitt Romney's proposed $5 trillion tax cut.
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The government shutdown cost the US 120,000 jobs
A new paper examining the lasting effects of the government shutdown estimates that it cost the US economy 120,000 jobs by October 12.
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Why did Fama, Hansen and Shiller win the Nobel?
Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert Shiller won the Nobel Prize in Economics Monday. Why? For their work studying asset prices. Marron explores their work and explains why they won the prize.
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Federal debt default? Been there, done that.
Budget-watchers love to say that the United States has never defaulted on the Federal debt. It's a great talking point, but it isn't exactly true.
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Do bitcoins violate a fundamental economic law?
The legal woes of the most famous bitcoin exchange may illustrate a fundamental problem with the bitcoin market.
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It's debt limit time (again). What past showdowns can teach us.
Once again, the US Treasury is facing the possibility of going past the debt limit, which could prompt major policy changes or minor tweaks to the Federal budget. This feels like a modern phenomenon, but debt limit showdowns are nothing new.
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The balanced budget amendment's $300 billion error
The Senate Republicans balanced budget amendment contains a striking error, Marron writes.
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House debt limit bill: five key facts
The US House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a debt limit bill that will suspend the debt limit through May 18. If they fail to pass a budget by April 15, Marron writes, the debt limit bill will withhold their pay.
Photos of the Week 07/23 Photos of the Week
Visitors pose for pictures with an art installation at Vinyl Museum in Tokyo on July 20. The museum is designed to attract young women who are interested in taking pictures of themselves with the installations and uploading the photographs on social media platforms.
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A good jobs report
The big news, economically and symbolically, is that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent, Marron writes.
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Think the corporate tax system is broken? Go ahead, try to fix it.
To offset the costs of cutting corporate tax rates, policymakers will need to roll back tax preferences, each of which has powerful defenders, Marron writes. To illustrate the challenge, Marron highlights a tax reform calculator from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
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Breaking down the 47 percent
Marron highlights a previous blog post where he explains why almost half of Americans pay no federal income tax. The repost comes in light of a leaked video of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney commenting on the 47 percent.
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Workers bear the corporate income tax burden
Corporate income tax moves some capital abroad, which reduces worker productivity, wages and benefits, Marron writes. As a result, some of the corporate income tax burden falls on workers.
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Investors lack basic financial literacy, study finds
Investors in the US are flying blind, according to a new report. Many fail to grasp compound interest, don’t understand fees and other investment costs, and aren’t aware about the risks of investment fraud.
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Economic data goofs make the case for metadata
Anyone can look at a set of data and misinterpret it. That's why it should be fleshed out with pertinent information.
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The rise of trading quote spam
High-frequency quoting that has skyrocketed recently, leading some in the US to think it might be time for a financial non-transaction tax similar to the one in France. The French will also impose a tax on traders who submit too many unfilled quotes.
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Does Mitt Romney really want to raise taxes on the middle class?
A study suggesting Romney's tax plan would raise costs for the middle class got plenty of attention. But its deeper message got lost: Tax reform is hard.
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Government employment: growing or shrinking?
Government payrolls have been shrinking steadily over the 40 years, but the last decade or so has seen an uptick.
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Has government gotten bigger or smaller? Both.
Is the government growing or shrinking? The answer isn't so simple.
