by Linda Beale One in 189 of those with $200,000 or more in AGI paid no federal taxes in 2009 [edited 5/30 to correct “one in four” goof] The IRS recently released another “statistics of income” report. This one has news that should make most ordinary Americans think twice about the GOP agenda of reducing […]
by Linda Beale Another US District Court finds no rational basis for DOMA treatment of same sex couples In a case that will add weight to the likelihood that the Supreme Court will finally take a case to decide the constitutionality of the so-called “defense of marriage act” (DOMA), the U.S. district court for Northern […]
by Kenneth Thomas Romney to Replace Obamacare with…Essentially Nothing Tommy Christopher (via @rcooley123) at Mediaite has a good catch on Mitt Romney’s health care proposals, from an interview Romney gave to Mark Halperin of Time magazine. Asked what would happen to people with pre-existing conditions after he were to repeal Obamacare, Romney said: If people […]
by Linda Beale Calculating the Cost of Bailouts A recent New York Times includes a piece on the Treasury’s study of the various bailouts or “rescues” of distressed financial and other institutions. Gretchen Morgenson, Seeing Bailouts Through Rose-Colored Glasses, New York Times (May 19, 2012). The Treasury study, The Financial Crisis Response–in charts (April 13, […]
by Kenneth Thomas The poll results are in on whether Jamie Dimon will resign from the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. By a 53%-40% majority, with 7% unsure, readers thought that Dimon would not step down in the wake of the huge supervision failure at JP Morgan, which led to its $3 […]
Yves Smith posted a call to action. If you want this country to be different, you can’t just wish for it or expect voting to effect change. You need to be part of making it happen. And that was perhaps the greatest of Obama’s deceptions, that by listening to his seductive rhetoric, your passivity made […]
by Linda BealeEITC: Mulligan (economic theory) vs. Seto (empirical evidence) TaxProf today noted the article in the New York Times about the EITC: Casey Mulligan, Do Tax Credits Encourage Work? New York Times ( 2012). Mulligan, an econ prof at the University of Chicago (home, of course, to Milt Friedman’s “free” market theories) noted that […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Notes from the Conference World So in the past 10 days I have spoken to and with health care executives from 40 + states about their current view of the health care world. A few observations: Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a keystone of Obamacare, are being viewed […]