Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has just pointed to The unfairness of housing purchases through time.     New Deal democrat and Barkley Rosser (at Econospeak) have pointed to problems with rental prices.  NDd continues with this post, also pointing to Bill McBride at Calculated Risk… by New Deal democrat Rents are going through the roof! Rent […]

There are limits to the analogy between Clinton’s 2008 primary contest with Obama and Sanders’s primary contest now with her.  Clinton doesn’t get that.  But she needs to figure it out because the differences matter. — There are limits to the analogy between Clinton’s 2008 primary contest with Obama and Sanders’s primary contest now with […]

We got to the end in June, and I did not put down conditions. I didn’t say, ‘you know what, if Senator Obama does X, Y, and Z, maybe I’ll support him.’ I said, ‘I’m supporting Senator Obama, because no matter what our differences might be, they pale in comparison to the differences between us […]

by Linda Beale Senate Finance Committee cuts tax return preparer regulation As most tax practitioners realize, many people who hold themselves out as “tax return preparers” actually know nothing about the tax laws and may even assist their clients in cheating on their taxes by inventing home offices, travel-away-from-home expenses, or other fictional deductions. The […]

So Sanders and Clinton are arguing about soda taxes — Clinton for, as a way to raise money for good stuff while discouraging self­-destructive behavior, Sanders against, because regressive. I have no illusions that rational argument will make much difference in the short run; we’re in that stage where anything Clinton supports is ipso facto […]

by Linda Beale Another Right Wing Propaganda Tank Piles On Tax Complexity Bandwagon As noted in my last post, part of the fanaticism that is surging in the current obstructionist Congress relates to taxes (quel surprise…).  The JEC ran a hearing on Wednesday targeting “complexity” in the tax code as a source of humongous problems.  […]

by Linda Beale Should simplicity be a primary goal of tax reform? I was at a housewarming party last Saturday and talked to quite a few people I didn’t know.  One was an economics professor at a regional school.  Naturally, economists and tax professors gravitate towards talk about the economy and tax policies, so it […]

by Kenneth Thomas Breakthrough in Kansas-Missouri Border War Via @goodjobsfirst, we learned Friday that Kansas Governor Sam Brownback had made a major response to Missouri’s proposed jobs truce in the Kansas City region. As regular readers may recall, studies have shown that more than $200 million has been spent moving jobs back and forth across […]

Linda is returning to blogging again.  Welcome back.   Dan by Linda Beale Finance Committee acts/doesn’t act on important Tax Court, Social Security, and HHS Appointments As the Senate Finance Committee continued work on its markup yesterday, it approved several important nominees for positions in the Social Security Administration and in the Tax Court, but […]

As for Clinton herself, her bandwagon-jumping nature is a big reason why so many people dislike her.  But in this instance there was the additional element of dishonesty: she knew that Sanders rather than the editorial board members had it right about what Dodd-Frank provides. She had said so publicly, recently, in a statement in […]