Yves Smith points us to information on our notions of new business and venture capital: Amar Bhide, who has written the classic, The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses, has decisively debunked the idea underlying the Obama Bucket Shop act, which is that public stock offering are an important source of funding for new businesses. […]
Financeaddict comments on a St. Louis Fed study: Their research asks whether there’s evidence that lenders changed their behavior to meet CRA, Fannie or Freddie-mandated goals by: making more subprime loans than they otherwise would have? lending to riskier borrowers than they otherwise would have? charging risky borrowers less than they otherwise would have? …If […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Innovation is Good Except…. …. when it is not politically correct. For a long time large employers have used self-funded insurance plans backed up by stop-loss insurance for large claims. I have worked with employer plans down to the 100 employee size. Now small employers are trying […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt While We Were Busy Discussing Other Things…. …. the first major rewrite of regulations for the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect March 15th. Good news and bad news for workers and employers. Overall, what I read looks achievable from an employer viewpoint, and the Obama administration has shown […]
Dan here…. Jonathon Chait writes in the NYT Paul Ryan: Obama Refuses to Endorse Tax Fairy. Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts on journalistic rhetorical language and consensus: on Chait there’s not really a growing consensus that tax reform is good. The consensus has existed among economists forever where he defines tax reform as closing tax […]
Peter Dorman at Econospeak comments: Bankrupt Rhetoric I woke up this morning to Paul Ryan, describing his budget proposal, as quoted in the New York Times: “This is about putting an end to empty promises from a bankrupt government.” Bankrupt government? Let’s consider this more closely. The normal meaning of bankrupt is negative net worth, […]
Simon Johnson points us to more information on the JOBS bill (see link) and a Senate vote today: As it currently stands, the “JOBS” bill now before the Senate would gut investor protection in the United States. The title of the bill is a complete misnomer – anything that weakens investor protection makes it more […]
by Linda Beale Is Congress drinking Grover Norquist koolaid? (or will it fund IRS appropriately) IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman testified before the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget for the IRS. Shulman wants Congress to provide adequate funding to the IRS to support its enforcement function. The […]
Given Ryan’s release of his new plan calling for territorial taxation of corporations comes this example of Apple from Kenneth Thomas, Middle class political economist econoblog: Apple Whines About Having to Pay Taxesby Kenneth Thomas On Monday, Apple announced that it was going to start paying dividends to shareholders, and buy back $10 billion worth of […]