Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

The Key to Defeating Trump in the General Election Is in a Single Sentence of His in Last Night’s Debate: Angry Americans want big tax cuts for the wealthy

People come [to Trump campaign events] with tremendous passion and love for their country. … When they see what’s going on in this country, they have anger that’s unbelievable. They have anger. They love this country. They don’t like seeing bad trade deals. They don’t like seeing higher taxes. They don’t like seeing a loss […]

Don’t encourage them…

Via Holly, I learned of this cool site called: Sidewalk Bubblegum.   The subtitle is: Cartoons about War, Racism, Sexism, Capitalism, Worker Rights, Human Rights, the Environment and Consumerism. I really thought this one gets it so perfect.  From 1996 no less!  

The Great Recession captured in 1 minute of comedy

Just watch this.  It is 1 minute long. Could it be anymore surreal? HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS? HOW MANY FREAKIN’ TIMES DO WE HAVE TO LEARN THE LESSON? Obviously, the lesson has not been relearned since at least sometime before 1992.  If it had been relearned, we would not be […]

Small businesses, tax cuts, and reporting

 I sometimes get the ‘eyes rolling’ reaction from people in my social sphere when I insist that at least linking to  original documents is important, and that someone needs to follow up on what an author says someone else says (as a way to gain traction and authority status for their own writing, such as […]

Cutting Corporate Rates May Cost Billions

Via Taxprof blogWall Street Journal: Tax Twist: At Some Firms, Cutting Corporate Rates May Cost Billions: What Uncle Sam has given to the earnings of companies like Citigroup, AIG, and Ford he soon might take away. President Barack Obama has said, most recently during last month’s presidential debates, that the 35% U.S. corporate tax rate […]

Disappearing inconvenient data

Via Barry Rithotz at The Big Picture comes Bruce Bartlett’s take on : Bruce Bartlett and the dangers of Republican know-nothingism  Bruce Bartlett goes off on some of the denialist behavior from the GOP. Bartlett writes: When a study doesn’t support their dogma, the GOP censors it: Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P. Protest Original study […]

Tax Policy: You Can’t Handle the Truth

ProGrowthLiberal at Econospeak reminds us of a central tenet myth of this electoral campaign, and an example of political pressure on information sources: Tax Policy: You Can’t Handle the Truth Sahil Kapur reports on something that does not surprise me on two levels: The author of a Congressional Research Service study, who found no evidence […]

Ok class, let’s review before the exam (election)

I’m sure you are all feeling kind of blah. You have this final exam for this session and I can tell by your performances on the quizzes that you are still confused. The problem solving portions of the quizzes have been very telling. So lets review.   You’re taxes are not too high. It’s your […]

Which Spending Is Easier To Cut And By What Level Of Government?

by Professor Barkley Rosser Reposted from Econospeak with permission from the author Which Spending Is Easier To Cut And By What Level Of Government? Back from his break, our former co-blogger, Dean Baker at Beat the Press, takes down WaPo ed page editor, Fred Hiatt, for his pushing yet again for cutting Social Security because […]