Financial Reviews

In the ongoing debate over raising the debt ceiling, one option has not had much prominence: whether the Obama administration could ignore it altogether, and just spend the money it owes anyway. Would that be legal?

Matthew Zeitlin at The New Republic spoke with a few political scientists, budget wonks and constitutional scholars who argue that it would be.  An excerpt:

Garrett Epps, a legal journalist and professor at University of Baltimore School of Law, has made an even broader argument in a pair of articles for The Atlantic’s website. In an interview, Epps told me that there was a strong argument that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional because it exceeds the legislative branch’s power of the purse. The

Full article…

It is now more than three months since the cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami struck north eastern Japan. The natural disaster cost more than 26000 lives, wrought huge destruction to coastal communities in the vicinity, shattered the regional infrastructure and crippled the nation’s power supply. Many industries have struggled with supply chain issues and the problems of intermittent electrical power. The motor manufacturing industry was badly hit, both in Japan and in overseas production plants where component stocks were quickly depleted.

Japanese manufacturing output is beginning to recover from the disaster and, indeed, output has risen for the past 2 months. Government figures just released for May show a 5.7% increase in output. C

Full article…

Economists at Northeastern University have found that the current economic recovery in the United States has been unusually skewed in favor of corporate profits and against increased wages for workers.

In their newly released study, the Northeastern economists found that since the recovery began in June 2009 following a deep 18-month recession, “corporate profits captured 88 percent of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent” of that growth.

The study, “The ‘Jobless and Wageless Recovery’ From the Great Recession of 2007-2009,” said it was “unprecedented” for American workers to receive such a tiny share of national income growth during a recovery.

According to the study, between the second quarter of 2009, when the recovery began, and the fourth quarter of 2010, national income rose by $528 billion, with $464 billion of that growth going to pretax corporate profits, while just $7 billion went to aggregate wages and salaries, after accounting for inflation. The share of i

Full article…

As part of the recent budget, California implemented an Amazon tax. There were two components of the tax. First, any business with affiliates in the Bronze Golden State must collect sales tax on Internet sales. Second, any business with subsidiaries in California even if they have separate administrative arms must collect sales tax.

Amazon did what everyone thought they’d do: They immediately dropped all affiliates in California. Here’s the notice I received:

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. Tho

Full article…

NEW YORK, June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

The ICD Construction Europe Top 20: Company Guide

Synopsis

The ICD Construction Europe Top 20: Company Guide is a crucial resource for anyone looking to quickly understand the key issues affecting the top companies in the Construction industry across Europe. Detailed company profile and SWOT analysis information is provided for all the leading companies who are ranked in order by total annual revenues generated.

Summary

The ICD Construction Europe Top 20: Company Guide utilizes a wide range of primary and secondary sources, which are analyzed and presented in a consistent and easily accessible format. I

Full article…