http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/?track=rss Headlines from baltimoresun.com en ©2012, baltimoresun.com Fri, 3 Feb 2012 17:35:00 -0500 Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-hancock-doomsayers-were-right-before-are-they-wrong-now-20120203,0,3146604.story?track=rss Adam Davidson has a piece in this weekend's NYT magazine : "It Is Save To Resume Ignoring Prophets Of Doom, Right?" He quotes such sourpusses as Noriel Roubini, Peter Schiff and Johns Hopkins University econmist Steve Hanke, all predicting dire events for jobs and growth. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 17:35:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-hancock-jobs-report-shows-economic-acceleration-20120203,0,4638401.story?track=rss The economy added 243,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said this morning. It was the 4th-best best monthly job growth in almost six years. More important, it looks like part of a trend. There were a couple good job months in 2010, but they were surrounded before and afterward by months with job losses. Now the economy has clocked 16 consecutive months of job growth. The numbers are finally well into six figures. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:12:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-hancock-report-gas-tax-hike-hits-poorest-the-hardest-20120201,0,538072.story?track=rss The Maryland Public Policy Institute, which has no fondness for taxes generally, does not like Gov.Martin O'Malley's proposed gas-tax increase. Fuel taxes are well-known as regressive, but the institute says a Maryland gas-tax increase of 15 cents (the Sun has estimated it would be 18 cents are current gas prices) would hit the poorest of the poor especially hard. Say Wendell Cox and Ronald Utt: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 18:32:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-hancock-exelon-building-will-pull-energy-from-downtown-20120201,0,1010481.story?track=rss Granted, the announced move of Constellation Energy/Exelon's new Baltimore headquarters around the Inner Harbor's northeast corner is not a quantum jump. Constellation's present location at 750 E.Pratt St. is already on the edge of downtown, furnishing walk-up patrons for restaurants in Little Italy and other eastern neighborhoods. The new HQ will be less than a mile away. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 15:59:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-md-gas-tax-would-be-nations-5th-highest-under-omalley-plan-20120131,0,1802350.story?track=rss Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed applying Maryland's 6 percent general sales tax to the price of gasoline, Michael Dresser reports in the paper . Maryland would be the eighth state to put a general sales tax on motor fuels on top of a state excise tax, not to mention the federal excise tax, according to the Tax Foundation . Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:16:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-shale-gas-is-energy-of-the-future-despite-estimate-cut-20120130,0,4250439.story?track=rss Reports that shale gas may not be as plentiful as people thought are getting lots of attention. Last week the Energy Information Agency sharply cut its estimate of shale gas -- from 827 trillion cubic feet to 482 trillion cubic feet, reports the New York Times . Estimates for the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia cut cut from 410 trillion cubic feet to 141 trillion. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:48:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-hancock-are-romneybuffett-taxes-truly-that-low-yes-20120125,0,7386151.story?track=rss The Web economics argument of the day is whether Romney's and Warren Buffett's tax rates are really 15 percent or lower. Last night Obama reiterated Warren Buffett's argument that Buffett's tax rate is lower than that of Buffett's secretary. Mitt Romney's tax rate for 2010 was way less than 15 percent, his tax return shows. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:41:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-which-clich-will-obama-say-first-in-sou-speech-20120124,0,2368817.story?track=rss Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker, is offering odds on President Obama's speech tonight. If you have access to PP's tills, you can bet on which cliché Obama will roll out first, reports Jim Geraghty of the National Review Online. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:53:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-hancock-hanke-walter-baltmore-can-thrive-if-it-cuts-taxes-like-ny-sf-boston-20120123,0,565926.story?track=rss Of the four cities whose football teams played for league championships yesterday, Baltimore was the only one to steadily lose population through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Boston, New York and San Francisco all lost thousands of residents in the three decades after World War II, but they began to grow again after 1980, say Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins, and Steve Walters, a fellow at JHU's Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise. (This WSJ op ed piece is behind a paywall.) Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:07:00 EST Jay Hancock http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock-blog/bal-is-this-how-private-equity-firms-really-work-20120123,0,3197962.story?track=rss Sunday's column was about the Bain/Romney/private equity problem writ large -- so large that it's a lot bigger than private equity. Buyout firms are only part of a process that has led to big productivity gains, the column said, whose benefits have accrued mostly to the wealthy: "Not surprisingly, corporate profits as a percentage of revenues are near all-time highs. The middle class is struggling. The top 1 percent of the income gradient has gotten very rich indeed. And many people want to occupy Wall Street." Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:41:00 EST