Lifted from Robert’s site: Ezra Klein defends an increased capital gains tax as necessary for distributionally neutral base broadening rate lowering tax reform..  I support a higher capital gains tax rate (did not have space for that in my comment).  My comment: But why do you want base-broadening, rate-lowering tax reform  ?  The inside the […]

While the issues involved are complex and also involve the use of government force to make it stick, and drug patents have a long and debated history, New asset class and much more at Dealbook points to a growing phenomenon for the global economy as well. Patents and innovation deserve a separate post, but the […]

Paul Krugman writes on debt and austerity some more, and a link to Steve Roth’s post It’s private debt from December 2011 is mentioned in comments near the start of that thread. Steve’s post had 101 comments of a serious nature and is a really good thread I believe.

Lifted from Linda Beale’s: Romney’s “revenue neutral” 20% rate cut may not be achievable, Hassett admits…For months, many tax experts have been saying that even what is known about Romney’s plan–skimpy as it is on any real information–shows that it is unworkable.  One of Romney’s sometimes advisers finally sort of acknowledged that.  Kevin Hassett (an […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Book Review There has been a lot of buzz about a book published on September 18th. (Dan here..See here for one buzz) UNACCOUNTABLE: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care by Marty Makary, MD This is an important book because in plain English […]

by Linda Beale NY AG defends tax-exempt organization probe After complaints from some academics about the rationale for a New York investigation of tax exempt organizations and a letter from Congressional Republicans Dave Camp (MI) and Orrin Hatch (Utah)suggesting that the New York Attorney General should not be seeking copies of federal returns from taxpayers […]

by Kenneth Thomas Every State’s State/Local Tax System Taxes the Poor More than the Wealthy–And All Exceed Federal Taxes A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that in every state in the country, the bottom 20% of households pay more of their income in state and local taxes than […]

Trade and Development Run 75411 picked up this recent report over at Economists View where someone (Goldilocksisableachblond?) pointed to a recent UN report TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT, 2012 Run says: There are some interesting comments within the Overview to the much longer report, which I found germaine to what is happening in the US and […]