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THIS WEEK
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September 4, 2019
The Latest News
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How Trade Wars, Monetary Policy, and the Business Cycle Are Connected
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Scott Sumner | The Hill
With apprehension of a recession growing, some are blaming the President's trade war while others point to Federal Reserve policy changes. These two events are related, but probably not in the way you expect. "Real" shocks, like the trade war with China, directly affect economic activity by interfering with the efficient allocation of resources. "Nominal" factors, like monetary policy, are not important for long-run growth, but very important in the short-run business cycle. The impact of a real shock depends on how quickly the Fed responds; if they react too slowly, nominal GDP growth will decline and the effect of tariffs will spread to other industries.
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Could Messing with Internet Law Mess up Your Vacation?
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Jennifer Huddleston | InsideSources
As summer's end quickly approaches, many Americans are planning their vacations online with review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp, or home-rental services like AirBnB, Vrbo and HomeAway. Most of these services wouldn't survive without a specific type of online freedom that is currently being attacked by many politicians. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 established that websites and online services are not the “publishers” of the content their users post, meaning Yelp won't get sued for what individual reviewers write, except in extreme circumstances. Without Section 230, the online marketplace for homesharing would likely come to an end.
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The Bootleggers and Baptists Strike Again
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Bruce Yandle | Washington Examiner
A plan to sharply modify the EPA’s technology-based methane gas rule has been met with resistance from a new generation of "Bootleggers and Baptists." Major oil companies and environmental groups are calling for the enforcement of these costly rules which are expensive, process-oriented, and favorable toward larger, richer firms. Large oil companies have an incentive to keep these rules, as their smaller competitors will face rising, and sometimes unsurmountable, costs. Meanwhile, they join environmental groups on the moral high ground calling for protection of the environment.
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Payroll Tax Cut Won't Stimulate the Economy
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Veronique de Rugy | American Institute for Economic Research
Officials in the Trump administration have proposed using a payroll tax cut to stimulate the economy. Some of this idea's supporters make for strange bedfellows, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Tax cuts for middle- and lower-income earners usually return about 30 percent of their cost in the form of added spending, but the idea that consumer spending is what grows the economy is also wrong. Additionally, the economy must actually be in a recession for a stimulus to be successful. While this proposal may not be the worst one that we have seen come out of the Trump administration, the thinking behind the idea is flatly incorrect.
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Additional Links
On the Virtues of Telemedicine
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Robert Graboyes and Conor Norris | InsideSources
What If There Hadn’t Been a Trade War?
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Christine McDaniel | Marketplace
How Your Digital Purchases Could Serve the Perfect Surveillance Network
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Andrea O'Sullivan | Reason
Some Clarity on President Trump’s Economic Policies
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Veronique de Rugy | The American Spectator
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