During the past two years, American consumers have enjoyed vigorous economic growth. Our second quarter GDP was 4.1%. The beginning of November showed an annual wage growth rate of 3.1%, 7.4 million job openings, and an unemployment rate of 3.7%. Those economic conditions welcome recent graduates and some of the marginally attached workers into employment. […]
The Hill’s Congressional Blog: Improving Small Business Access to Private Capital Will Create Jobs
On the surface, last month’s economic indicators introduce a dose of positivity into the market: the private sector added 200,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.5 percent, its lowest point since February 2009. But take a closer look and you’ll see that small businesses are still struggling to catch up, as tight access […]
Emperor’s New Clothes – An Independent Assessment
Reminiscent of a Stasi leg-breaking, Argentina persecuted economists for publishing inflation estimates that exceed the banana republic’s official estimates. Encouraged by those soul-mate vaqueros, Italian politicians started a regulatory shootout with S&P and Moodys for publicly saying a downgrade may result from Italy’s excessive levels of sovereign debt. The spaghetti western ended a few days […]
Ready. Shoot. Aim: The New Debit-Swipe Fees
Payment cards work well for most consumers. Consumers pay for merchandise or service, and from the payment, the merchant pays a little to the network and a little to the bank who issued the payment card (a so-called interchange fee, or swipe fee). The average debit swipe fee paid to the bank is about 44 […]
Competition Drives Cost Savings in Auto Insurance
If one thing stands out from recent news reports on auto insurance in Georgia, it’s that economic regulation and rate review are not needed to protect the state’s consumers from rate gouging. With nearly 90 auto insurance providers in the state, Georgia consumers enjoy more competition and choice of auto insurance plans than they do […]
