Stan Collender notes that, for the first time in four years, the U.S. Treasury reported a surplus in the month of April.  It isn’t just that there was a surplus in April of 2008, though.  If you look back through Aprils (data here), the last time that month showed a deficit is 1983—the April less […]

I found this link in Sitemeter and am in a quixotic mood. I couldn’t resist chasing it down as I wondered what Free Republic was and how Mike’s material could be used in a debate there. Lifted from comments at Free Republic website regarding Newt’s speech at CPAC earlier this week (and a spirited debate […]

by Mike Kimel A Random Observation About the 1970s… and the 1980s People often point to the stagnation of the 1970s, and the Reagan administration that followed, as evidence that cutting taxes leads to faster economic growth. But the same folks rarely look at the flip-side of things, and when they do, they don’t reach […]

NYT Robert Reich calls our attention to post election 2012 life and political realities: Looking Beyond Election Day By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog Most political analysis of America’s awful economy focuses on whether it will doom President Obama’s reelection or cause Congress to turn toward one party or the other. These are important questions, […]

by Mike Kimel The Effect of Individual Income Tax Rates on the Economy, Part 6: 1981 – 1993 This post is the sixth in a series that looks at the relationship between real economic growth and the top individual marginal tax rate. The first looked at the period from 1901 to 1928, the second from […]

by Mike Kimel Extrapolated September 2010 Debt, by President Cross-posted at the Presimetrics blog. This one is quick and dirty because I’m very low on time…. Anyhow, these days there’s a lot of talk about the debt, and some talk about how irresponsible Obama is, or maybe its GW. Who knows, there’s a lotta talk […]

What’s your answer? “Thinking about the past few decades… to the best of your knowledge, which ONE of the following U.S. Presidents do you think did the best job of managing the economy?” Bill Clinton Ronald Reagan Barack Obama Lyndon B. Johnson George W. Bush Richard Nixon That’s question #11 of the the Allstate-National Journal […]

by Mike Kimel This post appeared in the Presimetrics blog. Presidents, the Tax Burden and Corruption – Explaining Economic Growth One of the topics we cover in Presimetrics is the relationship between the tax burden (i.e., the share of income going to taxes) and economic growth. As shown also in a recent post, Presidents who […]

by Mike Kimel Presidents, the Tax Burden, and Economic Growth This post also appears at the Presimetrics Blog. It contains some information that has appeared in a few different Angry Bear posts, but I think I’m starting to manage to put it into a more coherent narrative. And as I’m able to do that, I’m […]

Via Kathryn (who previously pointed us to a similar exercise for the U.S. election), Theo Gray expands on the work of Tommy McCall (as published in the NYT under the title “Bulls, Bears, Donkeys, and Elephants,” which was glibly dismissed by Greg Mankiw*). While his conclusion will be heartening to Brad DeLong: And one more […]