Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Puerto Rico Suffers New Year’s Eve Blackout

Fury at Private Power Giants as Puerto Rico Suffers New Year’s Eve Blackout, Common Dreams The latest failure of the Puerto Rico privatized power grid on Tuesday plunged much of the island into a blackout on New Year’s Eve, sparking fresh anger toward the system’s for-profit operators and political leaders who sold off the U.S. territory’s public […]

Republicans want to defund the (tax) police

Under Biden, the IRS budget was significantly increased a couple years ago. Part of that increase was to fund the policing of tax returns, especially among the wealthy. According to Charles Rettig, an IRS commissioner appointed by Trump, the United States is losing $1 trillion in unpaid taxes every year. In the past two years, […]

Some Explanation for the Deficits – Quit Cutting Taxes

It is not spending causing the issues as the young Trump boasts. It is the tax cuts which have imbalanced credits to debits causing the deficits. What Republican’s promised would happen, failed to happen. The 2017 tax cuts did not stimulate the economy enough (not at all) to balance out spending to receipts. Since the […]

US population continues to grow

If current trends and policy continue, the Social Security Trust fund will be exhausted in the early 2030s and payments will drop by about 22%. If Trump has his way and income taxes are lifted on SS payments, the Trust Fund will be exhausted a year or two earlier and payments are projected to drop […]

AI meets the Department Of Government Efficiency

I have a reflexive skepticism about fads. While AI isn’t exactly a fad, the relentless promotion by the media of an AI future certainly looks faddish to me. That said, there’s no question that AI is making inroads into data analysis. Watson can already read radiological images more accurately than trained radiologists. AI is transforming […]

An American First. It’s the Law in WA

An American First. It’s the Law in WA: Accrued Holding Gains are Income – by Steve Roth originally posted at Wealth Economics Excluding these massive “economic flows” from income simply doesn’t make any sense, in basic accounting terms. Starting with the 2022 tax year, Washington State implemented a first-in-the-nation (7%) tax on accrued holding gains […]

2017 Tax Cuts made Income Inequality Worse and Hurt Black Americans

The author did not include graphs. I added graphs from the sources the author had included in their piece. A picture sometimes says more than words do. This is a well-documented and sourced commentary. It mostly says one thing . . . the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did little for Black Americans, minorities, […]

Funding Public Goods Problematic??? Blame the Tax-Dodging Billionaire

So, what are nepo babies or nepotism babies? The second name gives the meaning away. A person who gains success or opportunities through familial connections. Especially a child of a famous parent (such as an actor, musician, entrepreneur, or politician), Merriam Webster. Some Examples. There are tax implications benefiting them as explained by Common Dreams author Julia […]