The following may be the clearest statement on this issue I have ever read: Think about it. You’ve paid taxes. It was complicated. But did the existence of different tax brackets significantly contribute to the complexity? Of course not. What’s complicated is calculating your income (especially if you, like me, derive income from several different […]

Via Kevin Drum, the Los Angeles Times profiles Condi Rice. And some some think she would make a good President? Rice’s ability to become an almost clone-like extension of the president – to understand what he wants, to make her only agenda his agenda and to carry out his wishes with unfailing loyalty – has […]

The nation’s government-run pension insurance plan released figures this week illustrating the trouble that it’s in: WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) — The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. lost $12.1 billion in fiscal 2004, boosting its year-end deficit to $23.3 billion, the federal agency said Monday. As of Sept. 30, the agency reported assets of $39 billion to cover […]

International trade creates both winners and losers, as is well known. An article in today’s Washington Post forecasts a grim turnabout in fortunes for a group of people that had been winners up until now, but may soon become losers from trade. On Jan. 1, World Trade Organization rules governing the global textile trade will […]

Today’s CPI report complements yesterday’s PPI report. The result is similar, though less dramatic: On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-U increased 0.6 percent in October, following a 0.2 percent rise in September. Energy costs, which had declined in each of the preceding three months after advancing sharply in the first half of the year, […]

Apparently the US economy has been generating substantial amounts of new wealth for some people: NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – There are more millionaire households in 2004 than ever, and they have increased in number at a record rate year-over-year. Those are the key findings of the latest Affluent Market Research Program, an annual survey conducted […]

Bob Somerby began his Daily Howler in April 1998 devoting his second and third editions to how the press fails to grasp the issues in the Social Security debate. With Christine Romans taking the place of Kathleen Hays on Saturday’s On The Story, I was hoping for some wisdom but alas got: When you look […]

Wow. I knew that energy prices had risen lately, but this inflation report still surprised me: The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today that the seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 1.7 percent in October. …Among finished goods, prices for energy goods turned up 6.8 percent […]

As Kash updates and extends what I noted on Friday, I have to agree with his view that Bush is “throwing the CIA into turmoil and potentially causing a large fraction of its most experienced staff to quit in disgust”. Contrast Kash’s reasoning with this oped from David Brooks: President Bush is going to have […]

As the Democrats debate the best way to react to the Republicans apparent victory among “values” voters, they ought to take a look at the work of cultural researcher Juliet Schor. Schor, an economist by training, studies work and consumption, with research straddling the fields of economics, sociology, and culture criticism. The values issues she […]