By Daniel Becker Ok, if you have not heard, Mr Rand Paul made quite the impression during an interview with Rachel Maddow. The short of it: businesses should be free to discriminate as they see fit. It’s their right, though he’s not for discrimination. You know, citizens and all having equal rights. Well, there is […]

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Richard Abrams: debunking free marketarianism I’ve often written here about the problems of the naive, black-or-white view of economics that has been fostered by the Chicago School and Milton Friedman acolytes who talk of “free markets” as though markets exist in vaccum tubes unaffected by the social, cultural and legal […]

By Beverly Mannre-posted with permission of the authorThe Ann Arborist Sen. Jeff Sessions’ Habitual Conflations and Misrepresentations Prologue: The Slaughter-House Cases is the title of an 1873 Supreme Court opinion that was among the first to interpret some part of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was the part of that amendment that required […]

by Mike Kimel Pethokoukis Blaming Congress From his perch at Reuters, James Pethokoukis writes (and this is his title) about 4 ways Congress caused the financial crisis. He quotes from a paper by Ross Levine. I have not read the Levine paper yet but the abstract does seem to indicate what Pethokoukis wrote. The abstract […]

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter There’s a tax angle to everything–including the DeepWater Horizon oil spill There’s a tax angle to everything–including the DeepWater Horizon oil spillOil is still pouring out into the Gulf ocean from the well head of the DeepWater Horizon. The entire gulf is beginning to look like an oil slick, as […]

No, not that anyone should pay her $15,000-$30,000 to talk to teenagers about why they should be abstinent. (Short version: “As with my mother, I wasn’t, and look what I’m doing now. Uh, well…”) But, via Andrew Samwick, a study from the Pew Foundation (PDF) using PSID data finds that: Among children who start in […]

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Swiss Banks; State tax subsidies to corporations“> Busy day today, so just a note to point out an interesting blog posting at Money.co.uk on Swiss banks and the impact of banking secrecy on tax evasion. It’s Demystifying Swiss Banks, May 15, 2010, money.co.uk. Just another reason that tax reform and […]

by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Carried Interest: some senators want venture capitalists to get a CG ride on their compensation income Everybody knows by now that managers of partnerships who have “profit interests” have been claiming that they do not have compensation income but merely a return of capital on their “carried interests” (and that […]

Far more knowledgeable people will be discussing results today. but here are some pointers. Poilitics Dailey has a short note on yesterday’s primaries: …Kentucky Republicans struck the first blow by choosing political newcomer Rand Paul as their Senate nominee. Paul, an ophthalmologist and Tea Party favorite, defeated Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who had been […]

One of the nice things about going to the Kauffman Foundation this year was meeting up again with Peter Klein of Organizations and Markets, who was my first economics professor.* (I liked him as soon as I found out one of his first publications dealt with “moral hazard” and the Designated Hitter.) Peter has a […]