|
Taxation
A Category Archive (56 entries)
|
|
January 29, 2012
I recommend two new blogs that I've been reading in the past week. What they have in common, besides being good, is that both bloggers have been frequent commenters on Econlog. One is "PrometheeFeu's Blog." This recent post on tax... MORE
January 20, 2012
Most of the discussion by economists of the appropriate capital gains tax rate is about a very narrow criterion: the effect of capital gains tax rates on capital gains tax revenues. But in a 2009 study done for the Institute... MORE
December 27, 2011
In my state of California, the so-called Courage Campaign is pushing for higher tax rates on high-income people. California now, by the way, has one of the highest top marginal tax rates on income in the country: 10.3 percent. To... MORE
December 16, 2011
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
David Henderson
Ultimately, though, I find his case unconvincing. Moreover, his own reasoning leads to conclusions that even he finds distasteful, and he has yet to find a way out of those unfortunate conclusions. Frank often misstates the libertarian viewpoint, sometimes in... MORE
October 31, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
Teaching kids about taxes and welfare using Hallowe'en candy Comedian Tim Slagle, whom for some reason I had never heard of, has an excellent video out in which he uses Hallowe'en candy to illustrate taxes. A lot packed into 3... MORE
September 26, 2011
Mike Stroup, who used to be my colleague at the Naval Postgraduate School and who is now at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, has done a pithy 2-pager for the National Center for Policy Analysis. It's titled,... MORE
September 22, 2011
According to the Sept. 19 White House fact sheet, "The President calls on [the super committee] to undertake comprehensive tax reform, and lays out five principles for it to follow: 1) lower tax rates; 2) cut wasteful loopholes and tax... MORE
September 21, 2011
Megan McArdle has an excellent post today on the so-called Buffett tax rule. That's the idea that high-income people should pay some minimum percent of their income in federal taxes. After demolishing the case, pointing out that to trap every... MORE
September 20, 2011
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
President Obama Double Counts Now, I'm proposing real, serious cuts in spending. When you include the $1 trillion in cuts I've already signed into law, these would be among the biggest cuts in spending in our history. But they've got... MORE
September 15, 2011
Social Security
David Henderson
In his comment on my previous post on Paul Krugman and whether Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, "wintercow20" writes: Would it not have made sense from the outset to argue something like, "Professor Krugman also recognizes the problems with... MORE
September 14, 2011
Many people have quoted an article Paul Krugman wrote 15 years ago in which he said that Social Security has a "Ponzi game aspect." So how does Krugman respond? He now claims that he said it because Paul Samuelson had... MORE
September 7, 2011
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
A non-libertarian economist colleague recommended Warren Buffett's recent op/ed, "Stop Coddling the Rich," to me and I decided to read it for myself. I came away unimpressed. I won't do a full analysis, but I will point out a few... MORE
September 3, 2011
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
A well-known sociologist shares information about a prominent Democratic Senator that made him despair--and gave me hope. For some reason, I'm on what is probably a very large e-mail list from Amitai Etzioni, the left-wing sociology professor at George Washington... MORE
August 22, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
In my local paper, the Monterey County Herald, this morning, on the front page above the fold is the following headline: "GOP may approve payroll tax hike." It was a shocking headline and the story, by Charles Babington of the... MORE
August 17, 2011
Having just returned from my vacation in Canada, I got around to reading tax advocate Betty Yee's side of the "Amazon tax" issue. Yee is a member of the California Board of Equalization. I had argued against the tax but... MORE
August 15, 2011
Last week, Mitt Romney, in a rare moment of passion, said that "corporations are people." Of course, they're not. But if you watch the 20-second YouTube, you'll see from context that he wasn't really saying that. He was really saying... MORE
August 3, 2011
Economists generally think that competition is good. Competition among computer makers causes prices to be lower. So does competition among airlines, rental car companies and insurance companies. Why would competition among tax authorities be bad? But, says the pro-tax side,... MORE
June 27, 2011
Economics of Health Care
David Henderson
John Goodman's health policy blog this morning summarizes the results of a study done for the National Center for Policy Analysis by economists Courtney Collins and Andrew J. Rettenmaier. Goodman's table summarizes the most important points in the longer Collins/Rettenmaier... MORE
June 9, 2011
In a post back in January, "McArdle Waves the White Flag," I questioned Megan McArdle's view that it was a good idea for the Illinois government to raise income tax rates substantially. At the time, she saw the tax increases... MORE
May 21, 2011
Check out this video news story about Tennessee police stopping people and taking their money for keeps, simply on the suspicion that the money was earned on illegal drugs. The whole thing is well worth watching. Here are nine highlights... MORE
May 17, 2011
Economics of Education
David Henderson
California could cut school year by several weeks That's the headline of a recent article in the San Jose Mercury News. The article states: While plans aren't settled or even proposed, Gov. Jerry Brown and other officials have suggested that... MORE
April 28, 2011
From Anthony R. Palmer, M.D.'s letter in the April 26 Wall Street Journal: I got out my calculator and found that the President and Mrs. Obama paid 26.6% and Vice President and Mrs. Biden paid 22.8% of their adjusted gross... MORE
April 26, 2011
Donald Trump's potential candidacy for President reminds me of a proposal he made in 1999 and Bruce Bartlett's analysis of his proposal in the Wall Street Journal. Trump had proposed a one-time 14.25% net-worth tax on those with a net... MORE
April 22, 2011
I'm looking for estimates of the PDV of a newborn American baby from the point of view of the consolidated government budget, a.k.a. the "fiscal externality" of a birth. Other than Lee and Miller (1990), I'm not finding much. Anything... MORE
April 20, 2011
I posted on David Cay Johnston's article on taxation recently. I appreciate his acceptance of my apology and his willingness to discuss the issues. In his comment on another comment by Joe Barnett, Mr. Johnston defends "progressive" taxation, that is... MORE
April 17, 2011
In the latest issue of our local left-wing weekly, the Monterey County Weekly, David Cay Johnston has an article, "Tax Facts Hardly Anyone Knows." He lists and discusses 9 purported tax facts. Many of them are right. But I want... MORE
March 21, 2011
Income Distribution
David Henderson
I can't think of anything in the private sector that even begins to compare to this reverse Robin Hood redistribution from the poor to the rich and the nouveau riche. And remember, in order to pull it off, government first... MORE
March 16, 2011
From Third Way comes this clever exercise in numeracy: seeing how important various parts of the federal budget are by translating it into what you pay in taxes for each part. So you plug in all the taxes you pay,... MORE
February 26, 2011
In comments on my post on Rand Paul and David Letterman, some commenters expressed interest in seeing the data on overall federal tax burden, not just the burden of the federal income tax. As it happens, the Congressional Budget Office... MORE
December 30, 2010
Americans who have the means should refuse to surrender to Senate Republicans. We should act, together, to give back our Bush tax cuts, by making donations to organizations that promote fairness, economic growth, and a vibrant middle class. GiveItBackforJobs enables... MORE
October 30, 2010
Megan McArdle has a good post on her case for abolishing the corporate income tax. I say "good," not "excellent," because, in the midst of a comprehensive though succinct analysis, she doesn't get the issue of incidence correctly. She starts... MORE
October 27, 2010
On his blog yesterday, Mankiw has a great humorous YouTube done by, presumably, students at Harvard. Mankiw himself has a starring role and plays it beautifully. The video is professionally done also and even, in the midst of humor, shows... MORE
October 12, 2010
Income Distribution
Arnold Kling
If Greg Mankiw did not know that his latest column on the incentive effects (on Greg) of higher marginal tax rats would be ill-received, then he is somewhere along the autism spectrum. Tyler Cowen tries to return the discussion to... MORE
September 20, 2010
UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First Update at bottom. That's the headline on a CNBC story and these are the first two paragraphs: The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send... MORE
Last week, I was interviewed for 16 minutes by Mike McConnell on WGN, Chicago. He was a cut above in his understanding of the various economic issues. My test for whether it's working with the host is whether he invites... MORE
September 5, 2010
In a comment on my post, "From the Vault: My Review of Krugman," commenter David C writes: I'd like to point out that on taxes at least, Krugman's position hasn't changed from 1990. He still thinks the tax rates we... MORE
September 4, 2010
Greg Mankiw posts about how some economists responded to a Wall Street Journal poll about whether the Bush tax cuts should be extended. According to Greg: 6 percent said no, all the tax cuts should be allowed to expire, 24... MORE
August 11, 2010
Supply-side Economics
Arnold Kling
Nick Schulz links to a post by Tino that makes the point that in spite of much lower tax rates, the U.S. government collects more tax revenue per capita than do European governments. If all else were equal, this would... MORE
July 8, 2010
I was going to write on the tax advantage to LeBron James in going to income-tax-free Florida until I started to research it and see that, earlier today, Aaron Merchak at the Tax Foundation beat me to it. He did... MORE
June 24, 2010
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
My last post on Bruce Bartlett's The New American Economy led, understandably, to a lot of discussion of supply-side economics. I'll deal with that more in future post(s) but meanwhile I'm keeping my promise to post about his last chapter.... MORE
June 22, 2010
Supply-side Economics
David Henderson
On yesterday's post, Bob Murphy asks: David, what exactly do you mean by saying tax rate cuts didn't increase revenues? Tax revenues did in fact go up (eventually), right? So I assume you mean they didn't go up more than... MORE
June 21, 2010
I've posted twice now (here and here) about sections of Bruce Bartlett's book, The New American Economy. I found Chapter 6, titled, "Starving the Beast Didn't Work," quite persuasive. First, Chapter 6. Bartlett deals with the idea, popular with many... MORE
May 20, 2010
In a post two months ago, I pointed out the important distinction between being high-income and being rich. I gave an example of a friend, and a couple of the commenters suggested that my friend guest blog about his situation.... MORE
May 18, 2010
Supply-side Economics
David Henderson
Bruce Bartlett's The New American Economy is currently my "Starbuck's book," i.e., the book I keep in my car and read a few pages of every time I'm in line at Starbuck's. I'm almost through and it's really quite good.... MORE
May 12, 2010
In a debate with Robert Frank, David Friedman has pointed out some huge flaws in Frank's argument for higher taxes on "the rich." I found Friedman's critique devastating. I'll point to one highlight and then point out two criticisms I... MORE
March 10, 2010
Labor Market
David Henderson
On the comments yesterday on my post on the effect of unemployment benefits on unemployment, Noah Yetter wrote: You have to pay taxes on unemployement benefits? Am I the only one who finds this to be unalloyed lunacy? I actually... MORE
March 7, 2010
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
Veronique de Rugy recently published an excellent article on the perils of a value-added tax (VAT). She gives a nice history of the VAT along the way. Great paragraph: The first thing to note is that Greece collapsed in spite... MORE
January 20, 2010
Here's what Megan McArdle advocated today: eliminate the tax-deductibiity of health insurance benefits for people making more than $150K a year in household income, $100K for singles. So now imagine that you're a married person with a family and you're... MORE
January 5, 2010
WSJ article gets a lot right and a little wrong. A recent article by David Luhnow in the Wall Street Journal, "Saving Mexico," contains a lot of good economic analysis of the market for illegal drugs, as well as a... MORE
December 25, 2009
When Scrooge wakes up, he realizes that indeed he can change. In my favorite scene in the movie, Scrooge dances around in his nightshirt like a kid in a candy store, celebrating his power to change. And what is the... MORE
October 14, 2009
Economics of Health Care
David Henderson
In arguing with the recent study done by Price Waterhouse Coopers for the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the White House bloggers say the following: AHIP CLAIM: Fees on health insurance providers, pharmaceutical manufactures and device makers will be passed... MORE
October 7, 2009
In a positive article, almost a puff piece, on Bruce Bartlett, New York Times reporter David Leonhardt highlights Bruce's advocacy of a value-added tax for the United States. Leonhardt points out that many countries have such a tax and mentions... MORE
October 5, 2009
Income Distribution
David Henderson
In his New York Times column this morning, Ross Douthat considers various ways of reducing income inequality. While not endorsing higher taxes on high-income people, Douthat's takes it as given that such taxes would reduce inequality. Ignore the fact that... MORE
September 21, 2009
When I read that President Obama would make the rounds of all the major network news shows except that of Fox News Channel, I was skeptical that any hard information would come out. But we did see the results of... MORE
September 19, 2009
That's a question asked by Louis J. Prues and answered by the Wall Street Journal's Kelly Greene in the weekend Journal. Ms. Greene summarizes the findings of an analysis by Tony Webb, a research economist with the Boston Center for... MORE
September 5, 2009
Implicit Marginal Tax Rate Could be 131 Percent University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan, in his latest NBER piece, finds greater than 100 percent marginal tax rates across a large swath of the U.S. population. How so? From his NBER... MORE
Return to top
|
SHARE
