This is from the Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration has targeted small business with laser-like focus, pushing a $30 billion small-business lending fund in Congress and, later this week, rolling out a tax break allowing businesses to deduct 100% of qualified capital investments. But the chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Businesses […]
by Bruce Webb Want to make the move from wanking to wonking on Social Security finance and policy? Consider the following list. First read an Annual Report, you don’t need to understand every number but you do need some grounding in the terms and concepts. 2010 Trustees Report Then fill out your knowledge with this […]
by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Taxes, Deficits and Elections As we near the fall elections amid a “tea party” surge of anti-government (and hence anti-tax) sentiment, I cannot help but worry about my country. The tea party activists are apparently primarily decently educated, middle-class citizens. They have supported extremist candidates in a number of states, […]
by Run Whatever happened to the Guns or Butter premise? Naomi Freundlich at Maggie Mahar’s Health Beat Blog discusses the passage of the $26 billion state aid package and why it does not go far enough in securing healthcare for those who qualify for Medicaid. Passage of $26 billion State Aid Package Is Merely a […]
by Bruce Webb A curious feature of the battle over Social Security is that it is almost always a battle of adjectives and adverbs and not numbers, In particular almost everyone agrees that ‘Nothing’ is not a plan, People are not always clear on the consequences of ‘Nothing’ whether that be ‘massive’ benefit cuts or […]
by reader Ilsm Approving Military Equipment Procurement The Defense Acquisition Board is there to prevent the issues identified in the annual GAO Assessments of Selected Weapons Programs, 09-326SP and 10-388SP. The Board does not insist on product knowledge about what it is committing US funds for, nor manage the approval process through which a program […]
Robert Waldmann Obama proposes an additional $ 50 billion for infrastructure. He ignored my proposal to mail a $ 500 check to every US family this month. The proposal is better policy than my proposal. If implemented it wouldn’t help Democrats in November, since it would start next year. My guess is the plan is […]
by Dan Crawford (Rdan) Business Insider offers one sort of opinion by Mike Shedlock… what I can gather from the short article are the implications that outsourcing over the globe is a consequence of unions, that we should be more like Louisiana, and there is no economic literature on labor to offer some alternative explanations. […]
by Dan Crawford (Rdan) Voxeu carries a post on research into increasing global trade, technology, and wages patterns: The theoretical case for the potential effect of trade on the distribution of income has a long and distinguished history. It starts with the first musings of David Ricardo and has advanced to now include models with […]