A misguided response to the fiscal cliff could risk a recession while doing little to solve long-term financial problems
Taxes
Do We Have Another Financial Bubble On Our Hands? Or Three?
Multiple debt markets are facing big trouble because of excessive borrowing and the Fed’s easy-money policies.
3 Approaches to Curbing Gun Violence — Using Economics
Last week’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has done what many mass-shootings did not: reinvigorate the national debate over gun control. Advocates for restricting gun use in America have been on the retreat for almost two …
Why the Fiscal Cliff May Cost You $6,000 in 2013
You can’t turn on the television or open a magazine these days without hearing or seeing the term fiscal cliff. The media is awash with reports of President Obama and Speaker John Boehner’s negotiations over tax increases and …
Can the Estate Tax Solve the Fiscal Cliff?
The battle over the fiscal cliff so far has revolved around income taxes for the wealthy and entitlement reform. But there are many other ways the federal budget deficit could be trimmed that haven’t received much of the …
Fixing Inflation Adjustments Is the Smart Way to Shrink the Deficit
Limiting future increases in government spending will be less painful than making sudden deep cuts in current programs.
The Best Way to Cut Government Spending: Get Really Tough on Fraud
Fraud and improper payments for government programs amount to $125 billion a year. Reducing those losses substantially would avoid a lot of painful cuts.
Corporate America Seeks to Elude the Taxman Through Special Dividends
While the President and Congress have seemingly made little progress in reaching a compromise that would help the country avoid the fiscal cliff, corporate America isn’t sitting idly by. Parts of the fiscal cliff are tax …
The Other Side of Warren Buffett’s Common Sense Tax Argument
Over the years, Warren Buffett has gotten a lot of miles out of his folksy charm and ability to distill elaborate financial concepts into plain English. And recently, proponents of higher tax rates for the wealthy have gotten a …
Why the Fiscal Cliff is the Wrong Thing to Worry About
The resolution of the Fiscal Cliff will probably no solve much, while little attention is paid to the real economic problems.
5 Tax Moves to Make by Yearend
There’s a reason that Wal-Mart, Wynn Resorts and hundreds of other companies are accelerating dividend payments into this year: Tax rates are going up. Individuals should be looking at similar steps. Here are five that make sense now.
The Many Ways Your Taxes Could Go Up in 2013 (Even If You’re Not Rich)
The No. 1 issue on Capitol Hill these days is the so-called “fiscal cliff,” or the set of tax increases and spending cuts that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2013. A Congressional Budget Office Report issued this month projected …