by Bruce Webb Well I doubt that will be the slogan on the signs at the next Teabag Rally but it is an accurate summation of Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap to America’s Future tax reform plan. From the website (bolding mine): This plan discards a needlessly complex and manipulative tax code, replacing it with a […]

by Linda Beale Swiss banking secrecy in the news again as Germany seeks data The Swiss are fighting hard to maintain their edge in providing tax evasion services for the euro zone and the US. In spite of the modest changes to the US-Swiss tax convention, we can expect difficulty in acquiring information from Swiss […]

Let us see if we can translate my previous post on job selection into an economic model.  Start with a basic formula: (1) AcceptOffer = a(1) + a(2)*w + a(3)*b + a(4)*oa + a(5)*t where a is a constant, w is wages, b is benefits, oa is “opportunity for advancement” and t is treatment received […]

Forget the Eurozone for just a minute. Japan’s problems are big: Toyota is a major exporter/employer. Last year 48% of all new standard passenger vehicles sold in Japan were Toyota (or its Lexus brand). The WSJ article describes Toyota’s status in Japan as the following: In short, Toyota is to Japan what General Motors Corp., […]

by Rebecca Wilder Beginning of the year economic blues in the US? I think so. Just looking over Spencer’s CPI post; here is an excerpt (the first paragraph): The CPI report was encouraging. The total CPI rose 0.2% and the year over year increase is only 2.6%. Although real average hourly earnings fell, real weekly […]

by Bruce Webb The immediate economic/political news this week will revolve around Health Care and then transition to Jobs. Which is a good thing because I could really use a job with health care benefits. But Social Security blogging is what I do so here is a piece on the various ways in which Social […]

Robert Waldmann It’s alive update: Igor Volsky provides a good summary of the proposal As far as I can see the Snowe plan worst tax ever free rider provision to prevent employment of people who need jobs provision is included. I believe I am the first person to publicly object to this proposal when the […]

by Linda Beale How much do the wealthiest Americans make, and how much do they pay in taxes? Bloomberg.com’s Ryan Donmoyer has a brief story out on recent IRS statistics of income. See Top Earners Averaged $345 million in 2007, IRS says (Feb. 17, 2010). Here are the figures cited in Donmoyer’s report (based on […]

by Brenda Rossercross posted from Econospeak with permission of author. Global Trade Imbalances as a Statistical Artifact: Today, the latest spin that purports to describe the still unfolding global economic crisis is that of ‘global trade imbalance’, with particular attention being focused on the US and China. The US, we are told, has a huge […]