Obama’s 2017 budget has one provision that makes us want to send him a belated Valentine! He asks Congress to eliminate a federal tax exemption for interest payments on local bonds issued to build professional sports venues.
It’s an election year, so politicians talk a lot about taxes. Most candidates tell the middle class and poor they pay way too much in federal income taxes.
Nowhere is it written that it’s the Fed’s job to provide cheap money for the federal government to spend, but that’s precisely the hole the Fed has dug for itself.
As long as a price-fixing scheme cannot be enforced by law or mafia contract, we consumers have little to fear.
Ethanol, the wonder fuel, has turned out to be a wonder flop. But corn ethanol has powerful interests protecting the subsidy, such as corn farmers and ethanol companies. Those who bear the costs of the ethanol subsidy are the widely dispersed and disorganized members of the general public.
Citing weakness in the developing world, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that the world economy will grow 3.4 percent, down from an October forecast of 3.6 percent.
A low birth rate coupled with extended life spans for old folks is a recipe for an economic squeeze.
Immigration stories have cultural, social and political elements to be sure, but economics almost always plays a central role.
Opaqueness has advantages. Explained in everyday English, one consequence of recent Fed policy would be embarrassing. “We are giving banks $12.25 billion a year in free profits for doing absolutely nothing.
The point of the rate hike was not to slow down business lending; rather, it was to signal that the Federal Funds Rate will not be zero forever.
Any self-respecting intermediate microeconomics student should know that, if the cost of burning Christmas lights goes down, folks will indulge in consuming more Christmas lighting.
If we’re going to tax income, is there a better alternative? Indiana’s adjusted gross income tax wouldn’t be a bad choice.
One of the nastier quirks of U.S. corporate taxation lies in where income is taxed. Just about everyone else follows a simple rule: You pay taxes to the country where the income is earned. But that’s not good enough for Uncle Sam.
Tax rates affect the tax base in two ways: Higher rates decrease incentives to generate income and also divert income and investment to less productive tax shelters. With higher rates, the tax base is smaller than it would otherwise be.
The average U.S. real GDP growth rate from 1987-2000 was 3.65 percent. From 2001-2014, it was 1.64 percent. What event divides these two equal time periods? The 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Want to get a group of retirees riled up? Tell them their Social Security benefits are welfare benefits.
Public finance economists go crazy thinking about federal entitlements. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security account for most of the entitlement spending, although Obamacare looms as a future contender.
Let domestic oil producers sell at the best price they can.
When everybody “just knows” something is true, it’s time to get a little nervous. That’s when we suspend skepticism and uncritically accept the assertion.
if Congress refuses to raise the debt limit, the executive branch always wins the PR war.
