taxes

He will cave, of course, but this is the right idea: And before people start pissing and moaning about 'weakening Obama' (he's done a very good job of that all by his lonesome), remember that he and his surrogates kept quoting FDR who told his left-leaning supporters, "You have to make me do it." That's what the PCCC is doing with this ad.
Because it's the sucker's play. So Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky--a real Democrat, not a Very Serious fiscal 'conservative'--has released her own deficit plan. It's a perfectly good plan: the numbers add up (no magic asterisks, such as 'we will lower Medicare expenses [somehow]'), and as policy, even if one weren't concerned about deficit reduction, it's pretty good. But, as I've argued before, going along with this deficit reduction mania is a rigged game. Look, if this whole deficit reduction horseshit doesn't just blow away with the next televised national disaster or missing…
This should be the new Democratic talking point about tax cuts: We need to change the thinking. Taxes are not too high. Incomes are too low. If you are having problems paying your taxes then you need a raise, not a tax cut. Democrats need to practice this response to anyone talking about tax cuts. The sooner Republicans realize that talking about tax cuts leads people to want and think they deserve a raise, the sooner they will stop talking about them and we can have some sanity in our economic discussions. I like this, since it mirrors my experience. Really long-time readers will remember…
This is not a market that has any connection to the real world, but a casino--and you are definitely not the house: As the New York Times dealbook noted in May: These are short-term bets. Very short. The founder of Tradebot, in Kansas City, Mo., told students in 2008 that his firm typically held stocks for 11 seconds. Tradebot, one of the biggest high-frequency traders around, had not had a losing day in four years, he said. ....The fact that the vast majority of stock market trades are held for 11 seconds shows that the stock market is not a real market with real traders governed by…
And 'suburban' is code. Monday, I responded to a rich twit's complaint about how difficult his life was at $450,000 of annual income (Note: Since then, said twit has removed the post. Fortunately, Brad 'Deling' DeLong is aware of all internet traditions, and has saved the post for posterity). In that post, I wrote: Perhaps Henderson's outburst should be chalked up to the influence of degenerate white culture or our finishing school 'elite' educational system. But I digress. Most readers got the snark, but the first commenter worked himself into high dudgeon over the degenerate white…
I swear every time I go on vacation, there's an outbreak of stupidity. One symptom is a ridiculous plaint by law professor Todd Henderson, who whines about barely getting by on $450,000 per year. No, really, I'm not kidding. I suppose the rest of us should just eat a bullet or something (and bullets are cheap!). Thankfully, Michael O'Hare and Brad DeLong (aka 'Mr. Deling') tear down this staggering display of narcissism. I would only add that when one has $500,000 of student debt, you probably shouldn't buy a million dollar house. Or maybe, you'll have to forgo part of the $100,000…
Why, yes, I did. And Senator Evan "I'm dumber than a sack of hammers" Bayh illustrates exactly what I'm talking about: Today, MSNBC's Chuck Todd asked Bayh about the poverty data, and whether there is a disconnect between the real economic pain that people are feeling and lawmakers squabbling over tax rates for the wealthy. Bayh agreed that there is a disconnect, but then concluded that the poverty increase means lawmakers should forget about "fairness and things like that" and cut taxes for the rich: TODD: Yesterday, the Census came out and said one in seven Americans are living below the…
Having parasitized private industry, our economic betters are now turning their sights on the public sector: The most popular deals in the works are metered municipal street and garage parking spaces. One of the first was in Chicago where the city received $1.16 billion in 2008 to allow a consortium led by Morgan Stanley to run more than 36,000 metered parking spaces for 75 years. The city continues to set the rules and rates for the meters and collects parking fines. But the investors keep the revenues, which this year will more than triple the $20 million the city was collecting, according…
I'm loathe to disagree with Digby because I think a variant of the Delong Rules of Krugman also apply to her too. Digby, like others on the intertubes, is very concerned about work by Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifle, and others (covered in this Boston Globe article) which shows that: Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It's this: Facts don't necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University…
Contrary to what some might think, I'm not opposed to investment bank and bankers, I'm just opposed to the current crop of banks and bankers. But even more than usurious middle men, the guys who really make my head explode are the flat-out speculators--they serve, even on their best days, no useful purpose whatsoever. And thanks to the recent stock market computer glitch that caused the Dow to temporarily dive ten percent, speculators known as high-frequency traders are finally getting noticed (italics mine): Depending on whose estimates you believe, high-frequency traders account for 40 to…
It's the willful ignorance: No, tea baggers believe stupid shit because they want to. It's willful ignorance. They spin outrageous theories because they know that the naked truth about what they believe would make them look like giant bigots and big meanies. So, instead of saying, "I don't want health care reform because I like a system where poor people are shut out because that means I don't have to see them in my doctor's office," they start yelling about the slide into socialism. Instead of saying, "I'm an incredibly selfish person who wants to keep my government-funded Medicare, but…
There is a very nice posting by CM about wealth and taxes. Striking: the right-wing complain that 47% of Americans pay no Federal tax. But the real problem is that the bottom 50% measured by wealth only hold 2.5% of the wealth, so no matter how hard you tax them you'll get very little.
Every so often, Boston proposes raising the voluntary contributions it asks non-profit organizations to pay in lieu of property taxes (and other taxes), or instituting a consistent fee (right now, these contributions are negotiated with each institution). From The Boston Globe: After 14 months, a mayoral task force has nearly completed its work examining the city's uneven system of individual agreements with such institutions, under which they voluntarily pay cash and provide services in lieu of property taxes. Some pay millions; others pay significantly less. The city is pushing…
The Washington Post covered an interesting study by the Chicago-based nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology. Basically, to determine the cost of housing, the authors included the costs of transportation along with the cost of housing. Some findings: ...the combined cost of a home that requires a longer commute by car might exceed that of a more expensive home within walking distance of transit. "The farther you get out, the cost of transportation can double," said Scott Bernstein, president of CNT. "Somewhere between eight and 12 miles out from the center . . . housing costs dropped…
The NY Times has an interesting story about how state tax agencies are stepping up their efforts to collect money from people who earn money in another state, but don't pay the taxes they owe in that state: When Josh Beckett pitches for the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, New York collects income tax on the portion of his salary that he earned in New York State. But what about a Boston Scientific sales representative who comes to New York to pitch medical products to a new client? New York has decided it wants a slice of that paycheck, too. Anyone who crosses a state border for work -- to make a…
I don't know what's worse: that Republican congressman Paul Ryan is viewed as intelligent, or that if the Democrats lose the House, he could be driving economic policy. Not surprisingly, Congressman Ryan has proposed a tax plan that would lower revenues overall (Republicans talk about lower deficits--in practice, they do the opposite); the plan slashes income taxes and institutes a value-added tax (VAT). What is remarkable is that, for 80% of the country, individual tax burdens would increase. You'll never guess which end of the income spectrum those eighty percent fall into: Leaving…
In an otherwise not-too-bad post about the value added tax (VAT), Edmund Andrews goes off the rails: I would submit that many middle-income people (including me) SHOULD pay more. The government needs to raise more revenue to provide the services that voters demand, and middle-class people benefit from those services too. This policy shouldn't be pushed for during a depression, but, as a general proposition it's defensible. But this next bit just isn't factually true (italics mine): Rich people should pay more taxes, and I support repealing the Bush tax cuts for households earning more…
I guess this is what a libertarian paradise looks like: COLORADO SPRINGS -- This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric. More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops -- dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled. The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack…
Sure, there were some nice parts in Obama's State of the Union speech. But this part is the equivalent of flat-eartherism and creationism (italics mine): Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't. And if I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will. We will continue to go through…
Or something. Tuesday, I wrote about the reporting on the Oregon ballot initiatives, but, of course, the ballot initiative itself actually matters. And Oregon voters approved the tax increases (italics mine): Yesterday Oregon voters delivered a huge victory for progressives by approving Measures 66 and 67, raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 and large corporations to generate $733 million to close the state's budget deficit. The Oregon legislature had approved the taxes last summer, but a corporate/teabagger alliance organized to put it to voters in a referendum. One wonders if the…