by Linda Beale What’s Romney Got to Hide? (Part III) In the last two posts, I explored a number of fairly simple questions that might be raised about Romney’s activities that would be clarified by seeing multiple returns (hobby versus investment/business losses; business versus passive activity losses; amounts of preferentially taxed income; income reported from […]
by Kenneth Thomas U.S. Trails at Least 15 OECD Countries in Median Wealth Via @exiledonline, I learned today (July 18) that Canadians are richer than Americans. This is rather surprising, since GDP per capita is higher in the U.S than in Canada.: $48,100 vs. $40,300 (at purchasing power parity or PPP), according to the CIA World […]
The DNC has apologized for using Ann Romney’s London Olympics-bound horse in an attack targeting her husband. The Hill explains that Democrats had used the dressage horse to illustrate its claim that the presumptive GOP nominee was “dancing around the issue” of his decision not to release his tax returns. (Dressage is a dance-like sport, but […]
Um. Who knew?
I can’t help but think that Romney’s newly invigorated crony-capital (e.g., Solyndra) schtick is very much a double-edged sword for him. I mean, isn’t he the candidate who, notwithstanding his claimed concern about the federal deficit, refuses to support the proposed elimination of the federal government’s subsidies to the oil and gas industry, and who […]
A key but seriously underemphasized factor in the near-collapse of the financial system and economy in 2008 was the role that the two largest securities-ratings firms, Moody’s and Standard and Poors, played: The two agencies routinely and deliberately overrated the value of mortgage-backed securities. So I was momentarily (and naively) stunned to read this morning […]
by Linda Beale What’s Romney Got to Hide? It’s past time for financial and tax transparency As everybody who has followed anything about this election cycle knows, Mitt Romney–likely the wealthiest man to run for president, the only bankster/private equity fund founder (sole shareholder, CEO and manager) to run for president, and probably the only […]
The Washington Post carried a story on a Senate hearing on money laundering, one example being HSBC. The criticism was aimed at the OCC regulators who failed to pursue the issue. Also notice the fuss is over a foreign bank. The U.S. affiliate of global banking giant HSBC was for years a haven for foreign […]
The Incidental Economist addresses election snippets that keep on going, just like in the movies. Read the whole thing: Let’s try to stick to the real world when we talk about Medicaid, by Aaron Carroll: (Note: Paul Krugman cites here. Tyler Cowen responds here. I respond to Cowen’s response here.) Tyler Cowen had a piece […]
Rules requiring firms to restrict employment to their country of origin would be hideously inefficient if applied on a global basis, and they would be every bit as devastating to American employees of foreign firms as offshoring by American firms is to workers who lose their jobs here. (One might also ask where the borders […]