by Mike Kimel Why Scott Sumner is Wrong A number of the big libertarian & rightwing blogs are putting up links to this post by Scott Sumner. I’m kind of surprised because the argument seems to have more than a few weaknesses. What Sumner is doing is trying to show that the policies pursued by […]
Taken from Your moment of: WTF On Thursday a federal judge gave James O’Keefe a stern talking to about his deception in entering a US Senator’s office and trying to vandalize and muck about with the telephones. What could have been felony charges were reduced to misdemeanors by influential GOP lawyers previously and after the […]
Robert Waldmann Senator Mark Warner said something about derivatives reform. I kept reading a version of what he said which seemed implausible to me. I had trouble finding a transcript or video of him speaking. In the end very beginning but I’m an idiot and didn’t notice: I found it. It confirms my suspicions.Warner is […]
by Mike KimelCross posted on the Presimetrics blog. Government Spending and Economic Expansions It is conventional wisdom that raising taxes, particularly during and just after a recession, will harm the economy. Last week I checked whether that was true. (The post appeared in the Presimetrics blog and the Angry Bear blog.) The post looked at […]
Hat tip to Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism for Rep. Alan Grayson’s “the war is making you poor act”.
Robert Waldmann claims that, after the invention of the mortgage based security, which clearly served to diversify risk, there have been three main purposes : weakening the effects of prudential regulations, weakening the effects of prudential charters and making balance sheets look better. I remain very ignorant about banking and real world finance. Some time […]
Robert Waldmann Republican Susan Collins proposed an amendment to tighten bank capital reqirements. It passed unanimously, but might be removed in conference because the Obama Treasury is opposed. The world is upside down. One key issue is whether banks can use “Trust preferred securities” to evade satisfy capital requirements. After the jump, I will ask […]
by Linda Bealecrossposted with AtaxingmatterSeventh Circuit confirms rejection of Ch. 11 bankruptcy for tax avoidance purposes What will they think up next as a way to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. One corporation decided to proclaim bankruptcy as a tax shelter. Luckily for the US, the bankruptcy judge would have none of it, […]
by Linda Bealecrosposted with Ataxingmatter Maule and Pappas on progressive taxation and the decreasing burden on the rich Maule and Pappas have been engaging in a debate on progressive taxation and the decreasing burden on the rich. See Canonizing the Rich, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. As Maule shows in his posts, the […]