Congressional Budget Office. February 3, 2013.
Economic growth will remain slow this year, CBO anticipates, as gradual improvement in many of the forces that drive the economy is offset by the effects of budgetary changes that are scheduled to occur under current law. After this year, economic growth will speed up, CBO projects, causing the unemployment rate to decline and inflation and interest rates to eventually rise from their current low levels. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate is expected to remain above 7½ percent through next year; if that happens, 2014 will be the sixth consecutive year with unemployment exceeding 7½ percent of the labor force–the longest such period in the past 70 years.
https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43907_Outlook_2012-2-5_Corrected.pdf [PDF format, 77 pages].
YaleGlobal. November 27, 2012.
Many critics point to globalization, its swirling influences over worldwide connections through trade, technology and communications, as a culprit behind growing inequality. Yet the author points out that the connections deliver both opportunities and challenges. Multiple forces contribute to entrenched economic inequality in so many countries, that limits opportunity, and Bardhan contends that countries can control many of these with development of education, infrastructure and labor-market conditions. Economic rent is the amount required by a property or business owner to proceed with a specific purpose; some sectors of the economy benefit from new development and others seek to freeze development to deter competitors. Closing markets doesn’t curtail special interests within a nation who yearn for more. Technological development, composition of exports, government subsidies and regulation, as well as skewed pricing for use of natural resources also contribute to determining globalization’s winners and losers. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/inequality-breeds-resistance-globalization [HTML format].
Microeconomic Studies Division, Congressional Budget Office. November 13, 2012
Imposing a tax on carbon dioxide emissions would reduce the damage from climate change but would also impose a larger burden, relative to income, on low-income households than on high-income households. This paper evaluates two broad groupings of options for reducing the regressive effects of a carbon tax; one group of options would affect large segments of the economy, for example by reducing payroll taxes, and the other group of options would be targeted at low-income households, for example by providing an additional payment to households currently receiving electronic transfer benefits.
https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/11-13LowIncomeOptions.pdf [PDF format, 19 pages].
