Sorry, it’s not the middle class (Joshua Roberts/REUTERS) There is something in the tax deal for everyone from the rich to the middle-class to the working poor to the unemployed to the retired. So who stands to benefit the most from the deal in 2011? It’s not the middle class. The problem is some of [...]
Hey inflation, I’m going to pump you up, maybe (Scott Audette/REUTERS) Sarah Palin is concerned that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may cause inflation to shoot up and stay there. But could the greatest potential culprit of wealth-destroying, Germany-1930s-type hyper-inflation be, not the central bank, but Palin and the Tea Party? That in part is [...]
One of the big reasons people argue against raising taxes for the richest Americans is that higher taxes make people less inclined to work. The result is that raising taxes at some point doesn’t raise any more tax income for the government. This is in effect the famous Laffer Curve. I’m not sure I believe [...]
What should be the top tax rate for America’s wealthiest citizens? I recently wrote a post arguing why we should think about raising tax rates for the super wealthy. This evoked a range of responses from commenters. tnnumbers wrote: As others have mentioned, the wealthy no longer limit their investments to America, so even taking [...]
Ever since Obama made his poorly received (by pundits at least) Punish BP/Energy Independence White House address last week there has been a lot of talk that a carbon tax, especially a cap-and-trade one, could be dead. Many read the fact that the President didn’t mention it in his speech as a sign that he [...]
One of the worries as house prices began their now three-year plunge back in 2007 was the affect of falling values would have on budgets of cities and other local governments, which rely heavily on property taxes. Well it turns out, property tax revenue is far more resilient than people thought. The strength of the [...]
