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Seib:Two Massacres, Haunting Similarities
There are many parallels between the 1996 school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland, and last week's massacre in Newtown, Conn. The question is will the responses have any similarities?
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Why You Should Care about Senate Bill 3412
The middle-class tax cut act passed by the Senate in July might just be the last-minute solution to avoiding the tax hikes of the fiscal cliff.
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Carney Moves to Head of Class in Central Bank Grading
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How Big Deficits Became the Norm
How did the U.S. spend more than $1 trillion above what it collected in revenue in each of the past four years? Why is Washington once again struggling to bring the revenue and spending lines closer together? David Wessel provides some answers.
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Pawlenty on Dodd-Frank, Fiscal Cliff
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Wessel: Is Deficit Shrinking Too Fast?
What We're Reading
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◘ Economists Glenn Hubbard on the right and Robert Reich on the left debate the fiscal cliff debate. Hubbard calls for aggressive action on the federal budget deficit, Reich not so much, arguing that the need to get people back to work outstrips deficit-cutting right now. [WSJ]
◘ China pledged to speed up reform of its "hukuo" household-registration system in the strongest indication yet that its government is preparing to loosen controls that limit movement of rural population to cities, and limit rights and benefits of many of those who do migrate. [WSJ]
◘ Cashing in on very low interest rates, corporations around the world have sold $3.9 trillion in bonds this year, surpassing the 2009 record. Most of that went to refinance higher-rate debt. [Bloomberg] In the U.S., companies bought back $274 billion of their own shares in the first nine months of the year, apparently unable or unwilling to invest their cash in their businesses. [WSJ]
◘ A new Pew Research Center poll finds Americans are more likely to say the Newtown shootings reflect broader problems in American society rather than just an isolated act by a troubled individual, than they were after other recent massacres. [Pew]
◘ Pimco's John Devir says that uncertainty over U.S. approval of Keystone pipeline has been a windfall for oil-carrying railroads and sparked proposals in Canada to build pipelines there to ship Canadian oil to Pacific for export to Asia. [Pimco]
◘ William A. Galston and Korin Davis make the case for a government-owned national infrastructure bank to take politics out of funding infrastructure, attract private-sector investment, and make the U.S. more competitive in the global market. [Brookings]
◘ Boston University's Kevin Gallagher says the International Monetary Fund's latest clarification of when it deems when cross-border capital controls acceptable is "a significant step in the right direction, but still out of step with experience and economic thinking." [Pardee Center]
◘ New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg says the "Lincoln" movie gets an "enormous amount" right, but a lot wrong, including the dialogue on the House floor. [New Yorker]
Sign of the Times
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Minor milestones we've spotted:
◘ Private-equity firm Cerberus said at 1 a.m. Tuesday it's selling stake in Freedom Group, maker of Bushmaster rifle used in Newtown. [WSJ]
◘ The Newtown shooting prompted a new single-day record for applications for background checks for prospective gun purchasers in Colorado, beating the 4,028 record set the day after Thanksgiving. [Denver Post]
◘ An online petition calling on the government to "produce legislation that limits access to guns" draws 173,254 signatures since the Newtown shootings. [Washington Wire]
◘ In an early sign that Sandy Hook school slayings are changing attitudes, for the first time in five years, significantly more respondents to ABC/Washington Post poll favor rather than oppose stricter gun controls. [Washington Post]
◘ Government and private R&D spending in U.S. is forecast to drop by 0.7% next year, which would be fifth year it hasn't kept up with inflation, Battelle Memorial Institute says. [WSJ]
◘ Iron-ore prices in Australia have rebounded by more than 50% since their September lows on fresh optimism over China's economic recovery, now at highest levels since July. [Australian]
◘ AAA: National average of $3.25 for a gallon of regular is lowest price of 2012. [AAA]
◘ Just in time for a deficit-reduction deal, the federal government puts a "benefit finder tutorial" online. [YouTube]
◘ Payroll taxes and premiums cover about half the cost of Medicare. Other taxes and borrowing cover other half. [Don Marron]
◘ @jeffatdowjones U.S. Mint to Congress: It costs 2 cents to make a penny and 10 cents to make a nickel, but only 5 cents to make a dime. [U.S. Mint]
◘ George Mason University adds a second section of its two-week "economics for law professors" summer program, held at Colorado's Beaver Creek Resort. The first was over-subscribed. [Volokh]
◘ Asians have overtaken Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the U.S. 74% of Asian-Americans were born abroad. [Pew]
◘ SEC approves the first physical copper-backed exchange-traded fund. [WSJ]
◘ German investment group Joh. A. Benckiser agreed to take Caribou Coffee private, its third coffee deal this year. [Deal Journal]
◘ The dollar climbed to a 19-month high versus the yen Monday, surging above ¥84 before closing at ¥83.81. [MarketWatch]