by Linda Beale David Cay Johnston on Stiffing the Working Poorcrossposted with Ataxingmatter David Cay Johnston, former New York Times tax reporter and now a columnist at Tax Analyst’s Tax Notes, writes this week about the way both the Obama White House and the Republican party conspire to provide every-increasing benefits through the tax system […]
Key European CDS are starting to turn in the more northern direction again, as the German-French ‘pact for competitiveness’ faces near-unanimous pushback across Europe. Credit default swaps (CDS) are a market security used by investors to buy 5-yr protection (in this case) against default (or the like). As the spread rises the implied probability of […]
Reposted from New Deal 2.0 with permission from author. Deficit Hawks Down: The Misconstrued “Facts” Behind Their Hype by James K. Galbraith Economist James K. Galbraith attends a Pete Peterson-funded road show. The Fiscal Solutions Tour is the latest Peter G. Peterson Foundation effort to rouse the public against deficits and the national debt — […]
The NYT moves deeply into delusion: The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune— economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained. In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las […]
by Linda Beale New Program for Offshore Accountscrossposted with Ataxingmatter As I mentioned in earlier posts, the IRS has released information about a new voluntary disclosure program for offshore account holders. The last program, which closed in October 2009, provided a low penalty of 20% of the highest aggregate balance in offshore accounts for the […]
by Mike Kimel Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governmentsCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. Frances Woolley has a piece in Worthwhile Canadian Initiatives that begins like this: Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governments. At least, that’s what my colleagues Stephen Ferris and Marcel […]
David Beckworth points to Scott Sumner, who points to Kantoos on the effectiveness of nominal income targeting in Germany. Kantoos’ illustration certainly suggests that the ECB has been successful in getting the dynamics of output and prices (nominal GDP) right over the last decade. I have no contention with the historical evidence. Whether or not […]
Kash Mansori will be writing again for Angry Bear. He has his own site The Streetlight, which carries several new posts. When he entered the private sector in 2006 he stopped writing for blogs. Kash wrote well written and data driven posts on international finance and macro economic topics, and some humorous as well. Welcome […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Policy Confusion The Obama administrative, and especially the Department of Health and Human Services, is pushing the notion of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and similar innovative integration strategies to improve the cost-benefit ratio of health care services. This is integral to PPACA (“Obamacare.”) ACOs and other integrated provider […]
by Mike Kimel Rules to Write ByCross posted at the Presimetrics blog. Things to keep in mind, especially when posting here or writing me letters: 1. I don’t cite authority as proof, and I ask that you have the courtesy to not do the same to me. Its bad enough when you cite Paul Krugman. […]