The readers of the Fiscal Times learn what everyone looking at the alphabet-soup of back-door taxpayer theft (or, as Ben Bernanke calls them, facilities) knows: There are many ways policy could have been improved; providing more help for state and local governments is high on the list, but I’ll focus on another way: using fiscal […]
by Tom Bozzo, cross-posted from Marginal Utility Competition in (increasing) service quality doesn’t reduce costs: Dane County’s two hospitals that deliver babies are each spending close to $40 million to spruce up maternity units and related facilities for a simple reason: Young women are key health care consumers, often deciding where their families will seek […]
Mark Thoma in The Fiscal Times takes a stab at explaining this recession and policy: As this year comes to a close, and as we finally begin the recovery stage of the recession, it’s a good time to look back and ask how policymakers could have improved their response to the downturn. What can we […]
The 2010 Census is out now….lots of data.
The NYT makes note of the US chamber of Commerce and litigation: The chamber now files briefs in most major business cases. The side it supported in the last term won 13 of 16 cases. Six of those were decided with a majority vote of five justices, and five of those decisions favored the chamber’s […]
(Dan here: I am traveling right now and am posting things late or maybe not as tidy as I would like. But posts are coming.) by Linda BealeTax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passes crossposted with Ataxingmatter No big surprise here. The House on December 16 passed the Senate-approved TRA […]
Tom Walker(aka Sandwichman at Ecological Headstand) Modeling Sunshine and Shadows: Inequality, long hours and crisis Alex Harrowell at A Fistful of Euros sees sunshine beaming from the IMF in a working paper by Michael Kumhof and Romain Rancière that identifies income inequality as a potential source of financial crisis. No shit, Sherlock! Outside of the […]
Update: Brad DeLong appears to confirm that Obama’s inner circle would be best served by being placed in a circular firing squad, given live ammo, and being told to “do what is right.” The plethora of disingenuous claims that Barack Obama “won” with the McConnell-Obama “compromise” are legend. See, for instance, the idiocy of Andrew […]
by Bruce Webb (cross posted at new dedicated (and partially funded) blog Social Security Defender) As part of the Tax Cut deal Obama cut with Republicans there was included a one-year cut of 2% of payroll out of the 6.2% employee share of the overall 12.4% of payroll sent to Social Security. This cut was […]
by Mike Kimel A Simple Explanation for a Strange Paradox: Why the US Economy Grew Faster When Tax Rates Were High, and Grew Slower When Tax Rates Were LowCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. If you are familiar with my writing, you know that for years I have been covering the proverbial non-barking dog: the […]