by Mike Kimel Scott Sumner Digs Deeper Scott Sumner criticizes my most recent post in which I indicate that Keynesian theory explains growth rates during the New Deal era better than theories proposed by monetarists. He starts by criticizing this, which I wrote in my earlier post. Aggregate demand was very slack when FDR took […]
by Linda Beale Super-Congress wants to have its cake and eat it too So the Democrats and Republicans on the so-called “Super-Committee” that is supposed to find $1.2 trillion in budget reductions/increased revenues within a week now thinks it has a solution–let the regular tax committees (Finance and Ways & Means) come up with the […]
by Linda Beale GOP wants to repeal Dodd-Frank: instead they should listen to Nassim Taleb Nassim Taleb, the author of the book on long-tail events, suggests in a Nov. 6, 2011 op-ed in the New York Times that “it is only a matter of time before private risktaking leads to another giant bailout like the […]
by Linda Beale The right’s smoke and mirrors scam about Social Security–it ain’t broke (unless China is too) We’ve noted in these postings the growing inequality between rich and the rest of us in America, and that is the appropriate backdrop against which to investigate further the right’s smoke-and-mirrors scams about tax policy and earned […]
By Linda Beale Infrastructure gamesmanship puts wealthy ahead of jobs, good bridges, and country For those who are paying attention to the House and Senate these days, it seems like a frustrating exercise. Mostly it is one of watching the “do-nothing” Republicans find excuses for never requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share […]
by Linda Beale Nader Argues for a Financial Transactions Tax Ralph Nader provided an op-ed on the question of a financial transaction tax, “Time for a Tax on Speculation,” Wall St. Journal, A17 (Nov. 2, 2011). He ties the need for the tax as a curb to speculation to the growing concern among ordinary Americans […]
by Linda Beale The right’s nutty claims about job creation–Gingrich and the estate tax The right is busy selling its program for enriching the rich to the working class. As usual, the sales pitches are full of false and nutty claims pitched to fool hard workers who are uninformed about the facts. Newt Gingrich, for […]
by Linda Beale the right’s smoke & mirrors scams about corporate tax “reform” One could get a pretty gloomy picture of the state of Social Security, and the need to “reduce entitlements” while at the same time hearing about the (faked) urgency of cutting corporate taxes in order to give our US multinationals an edge […]
by Mike Kimel The Kimel Curve and the Kitchen Sink, Part 2: The Reagan Era to the Present I often post about the relationship between the top marginal tax rate and economic growth, which I’ve noted can be described this way: % change in real GDP from t to t+1 = a + b*Top Marginal […]
by Linda Beale Inequality–the facts speak for themselves (don’t listen to the apologists on the right) Inequality is real, and it is growing. It is debilitating for democratic institutions, as the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case and its aftermath start to impact the federal elections and as the money from the Koch brothers, Walton heirs […]