Regulatory uncertainty about how the Affordable Care Act’s excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans will affect health savings accounts is causing employers to eliminate payroll deduction contributions to HSAs, according to a study released today by ABA’s HSA Council.
Sales of new single-family houses in April rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 517,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. The April rate is 6.8 percent above the revised March rate of 484,000 and 26.1 percent above the year-ago rate of 410,000.
The Dodd-Frank Act’s asset threshold for systemically important financial institutions is set too low and should be replaced by a more tailored approach, ABA President and CEO Frank Keating said in a letter to the editor published Sunday in the Washington Post.
The 20-City Case-Shiller Compositev Index gained 5 percent year-over-year in March, consistent with February’s gain. The 10-City Composite gained 4.7 percent in March from the previous year, down from the 4.8 percent year-over-year gain in February. The National Index recorded a 4.1 percent gain on an annual basis in March, compared to a 4.2% annual gain in February.
New orders for durable manufactured goods decreased 0.5 percent to $235.5 billion in April, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This decrease, down two of the last three months, followed a 5.1 percent increase in March. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.5 percent.
ABA and other trade groups last week urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to solicit public comment on its recently issued arbitration study before it considers rulemaking on the subject.
“[I]f the economy continues to improve as I expect, I think it will be appropriate at some point this year to take the initial step to raise the federal funds rate target and begin the process of normalizing monetary policy,” Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen said in a speech at the Providence Chamber of Commerce in Rhode Island.
The U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general yesterday released a report offering examples of how USPS could expand its financial services offerings and arguing that these services “could be extremely popular.”
The Consumer Price Index increased 0.1 percent in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, as further declines in energy was offset by an increase in all items less food and energy, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Over the last 12 months, the CPI declined 0.1 percent SAAR — the third year-over-year decline in 2015.