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from NewsLink, Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2001
Not going for the gold.
Despite a $45 million ad campaign, of the $1.1 billion worth of Sacagawea dollar coins produced through September 30, 2000, approximately half of the new gold-colored coins remained in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank and the U.S. Mint as of October 20, 2000. The other half are in circulation. It appears, however, that many of these are being hoarded, because few coins are observed in day-to-day transactions. The fact that, to date, the new dollar coin has not been widely used in day-to-day transactions – even though it avoids the physical impediments to the success of previous dollar coins – suggests that, given a choice, the public prefers dollar notes to dollar coins.
Daniel L. Thornton, Monetary Trends, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, December 2000.The competitive edge goes to smaller firms.
Years ago, John Kenneth Galbraith's books The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State, presented a terrifying view of an American economy. Galbraith predicted that powerful industrial concerns would essentially abolish the market, controlling not only the supply of goods and capital, but through manipulative advertising, the demand for their own products. But the evidence has proven Galbraith wrong. [This group's] percentage share has fallen from 59.3% in 1980 to 36.1% in 1993. The competitive edge has shifted overwhelmingly to smaller firms.
James Rolph Edwards, Liberty, January 2001.The tax man never sleeps.
Some governors and lawmakers plan to push legislation to standardize tax codes across the states to secure sales taxes on purchases over the Internet. Currently it is up to buyers to pay sales taxes by reporting such transactions on their tax returns. The National Governors Association says states will lose $20 billion in unpaid online sales taxes by 2003. If the new legislation were to pass, states would embrace similar sales tax terminology and classifications. New software would be developed to allow e-tailers to determine and collect the sales tax on a transaction, depending on where the buyer lives. However, even if states choose to follow this approach, they will depend on e-sellers to collect taxes and send them to the states.
Associated Press, January 31, 2001.We told you so!
Economy.com is a major source of economic information on the Internet. Recently it conducted a survey that found that Northeastern business centers, New York and Boston, rank as the highest cost metropolitan areas in the U.S. ... Upon initial inspection it would appear that relative business costs have little impact on regional economic performance, as many of the strongest economies in the Northeast and West also have the highest business costs. This conclusion is deceptive, however: business costs are instrumental in determining long-term regional economic performance, as they play a central role in the relocation and expansion decisions of firms. Indeed, approximately one-third of the differences between state employment growth over the past decade can be explained by differences in the cost of doing business.
Francis X. Markey and Michael Burt, dismal.com, January 9, 2001.NewsLink is the quarterly newsletter of the Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research at Suffolk University. © 1996-2003. All rights reserved.
Revised on 03-Jul-2003 1:22 PM