by Calculated Risk on 1/07/2014 09:07:00 PM

Hopefully this will happen ... extending unemployment benefits is good economics, good policy, and the right thing to do. From the NY Times: Vote in Senate Starts Talks on Extending Unemployment Benefits

The three-month extension of benefits passed with no room to spare, on a vote of 60 to 37 ... Tuesday’s vote merely got the Senate to consider the unemployment bill formally. The six Republicans who voted yes included moderates like Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, but also conservatives from states with unemployment rates above the national average, like Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Dan Coats of Indiana.

Menzi Chinn at Econbrowser has the CBO analysis: Macro Implications of Extending Emergency Unemployment Compensation

This should be a non-partisan issue. Historically mainstream politicians of both parties (and most Americans) have supported emergency unemployment benefits when so many people are suffering from long term unemployment. It would be unprecedented not to extend the benefits.

Wednesday:
• Early: Reis Q4 2013 Mall Survey of rents and vacancy rates.

• At 7:00 AM ET, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index for the previous two weeks.

• At 8:15 AM, the ADP Employment Report for December. This report is for private payrolls only (no government). The consensus is for 205,000 payroll jobs added in December, down from 215,000 in November.

• At 2:00 PM, the Fed will release the FOMC Minutes for the Meeting of December 17-18, 2013.

• At 3:00 PM, Consumer Credit for November from the Federal Reserve. The consensus is for credit to increase $14.2 billion in November.