European Austerity: Who Should Pay?
Europe is in turmoil. Unemployment is up; wages are down. Industrial production is stagnating. Most importantly, European people are demonstrating on the streets and on the internet in outrage over...
Taxes
European Austerity: Following in America’s Footsteps
European austerity policies -- cutting minimum government jobs and services, reducing pension payments and minimum wages, transferring the tax burden from the rich to the middle and poor -- have...
Gun-Toting Vigilante Lunatics versus Tree-Hugging Bleeding Hearts
This election season is full of laments about how polarized American politics has become. Extreme right-wing Republicans claim they can't see eye to eye with extreme left-wing Democrats. Politicians are...
Austerity is not the Answer; Employment is the Answer
In Greece the unemployment rate is 20%. In Spain it's 23%. In Portugal and Ireland the unemployment rate is 15%. Things in Europe are starting to look as bad as...
Why Have Levels of Income Inequality Risen So Much?
The recession has been tough on many Americans. But the recession only started in 2008, and the statisticians at the National Bureau of Economic Research figure it ended in 2009. ...
Should We Reduce the Corporate Income Tax?
President Obama has opened an election-year debate on corporate taxation with his proposal to reduce the headline corporate income tax rate from 35% to 28%. His idea is to give...
Federal Workers Should Not Have to Pay for the Social Security Tax Cuts
Congress is set to extend the 2011 Social Security tax reduction to the end of 2012. Three cheers for that. Social Security taxes are some of the most unfair in...
Trickle-Down in the Other ‘Down Under’
GOP White House hopefuls want taxes on the rich cut even lower than they’ve already been cut. What might a tax-the-rich-even-less future bring? The land of the kiwi offers one frightful answer.
To Grow the Realonomy, Tax and Spend
Low taxes mean high growth, and a rising tide lifts all boats. Don't tax the job-creators. Money trickles down from the rich to the poor. We’ve been hearing arguments like...