Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Taxes and Economic Growth: Real World & Simulations

by Mike Kimel Taxes and Economic Growth: Real World & Simulations Over the past few years, I’ve posted many times on an unpleasant reality: despite the fact that so many people believe otherwise, in general, lower taxes do not result in faster economic growth. It is really too bad, because we could all be better […]

The Peltzman Effect: Why Economic Growth Has Slowed in the US Over Time

by Mike Kimel (Update: Naked Capitalism notes Mike’s post is the top read of the day in ‘links’) In recent years, there have been a number of studies showing that generational income mobility is particularly low in the US. To quote this 2006 study by Tom Hertz: By international standards, the United States has an […]

Looking Beyond Election Day

NYT Robert Reich calls our attention to post election 2012 life and political realities: Looking Beyond Election Day By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog Most political analysis of America’s awful economy focuses on whether it will doom President Obama’s reelection or cause Congress to turn toward one party or the other. These are important questions, […]

Basic Macroeconomics

by Mike Kimel Recently I had the opportunity to speak to Professor David Cohen’s class on the US Presidency in the Political Science department at the University of Akron. My talk was structured around three questions involving some extremely simple recent economic history. None of the questions were trick questions. The questions appear below. — […]

Lifted from comments

Lifted from comments on the housing situation by Spencer…Housing vs. Household formation. Of course the point also being…what is going to be the source of growth for US citizens? kharris comments and adds another contributing factor on the housing market: …Banks already have pretty nearly all the housing assets they care to have, thank you […]

The Effect of Individual Income Tax Rates on the Economy, Part 2: The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929 – 1940

by Mike Kimel The Effect of Individual Income Tax Rates on the Economy, Part 2: The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929 – 1940 This post is the second in a series that looks at the relationship between real economic growth and the top individual marginal tax rate. Last week I had a post […]

Presidents, Tax Burdens, and the Subsequent Economic Growth

by Mike Kimel Presidents, Tax Burdens, and the Subsequent Economic Growth Over the years, I’ve posted variations of the graph below a few times: Figure 1 The graph shows the change in the tax burden (i.e., current federal receipts / GDP) from the year before an administration took office to its second year in office […]