Republicans are demanding a deficit-reduction package that’s entirely spending cuts. Democrats insist that revenues must also be included. Are these positions completely irreconcilable? Not if both sides are willing to attack the spending hidden in our tax code. I explore this idea for finding common ground in a new essay in National Affairs, “Spending in [...]
Archive for June, 2011
Spending in Disguise
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Debt Limit, Politics, Taxes on June 29, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Avoiding Road Kill in Ghana
Posted in International, Nature, tagged Animals, Development, Ghana, Humor, International on June 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
In Washington’s economic circles, the only animals we usually have to worry about are hawks and doves. (And the occasional raccoon or vole.) If you’re doing development research in Ghana, however, things are more complicated. Zipping from village to village on her motorcycle, my friend Liz has become intimately familiar with the behavior — often stochastic – of different [...]
Don’t Fall for a Repatriation Holiday
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Politics, Taxes on June 27, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Recent weeks has brought much chatter — from both Republicans and Democrats — about offering companies a temporary tax holiday for repatriating foreign earnings. A typical proposal would effectively tax any repatriated earnings at 5.25% this year, rather than the usual rates which can be as a high as 35%. Proponents tout this as a [...]
Playing with Fire with the Debt Limit
Posted in Budget, Finance, Politics, tagged Debt, Debt Limit, Finance, Politics, Treasury on June 24, 2011 | 3 Comments »
My latest column in the Christian Science Monitor: America sometimes takes its exceptionalism too far. Case in point: We are the only major economy that talks openly of default. Government debt has ballooned throughout the developed world in the aftermath of the Great Recession. France and Britain are as deep in debt as the United States, [...]
What Happens When a High-Profile Undocumented Immigrant Reveals Himself?
Posted in Life, tagged Immigration on June 22, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Judging by my Twitter feed, the most captivating story of the day is Jose Antonio Vargas’s account, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” Writing in the NYT Magazine, Vargas recounts how his mother sent him to the United States when he was 12 and how, in the subsequent years, he built a career as a [...]
The Brain on Trial
Posted in Behavioral Economics, tagged Crime, Law and Economics on June 20, 2011 | 4 Comments »
David Eagleman thinks that advances in neuroscience should transform our criminal justice system. Writing in The Atlantic, Eagleman emphasizes how genetic and environmental factors influence cognitive function: We are each constructed from a genetic blueprint, and then born into a world of circumstances that we cannot control in our most-formative years. The complex interactions of genes and [...]
What Would We Need for Persistent 5% Growth?
Posted in Macroeconomics, Politics, tagged GDP, Growth, Macroeconomics on June 15, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Last week, I argued that Governor Tim Pawlenty’s aspiration for 5% economic growth over a full decade is implausible since the United States has achieved such steady growth only once since World War II. Over at Economics One, Stanford economics professor John Taylor offers a more positive take, defending the goal and offering a recipe for [...]
Misleading Graphics, Not So Honest Tea Edition
Posted in Data, Life, tagged Graphics on June 13, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Are you smarter than Honest Tea, the upstart purveyor of natural (and yummy) teas? To see, please compare the sizes of the yellow and black coffee cups: How big do you think the yellow cup is relative to the black one? About 1/8 the size? About 1/4? Or about 1/2? Take your time. Think about it. [...]
How Ambitious is Pawlenty’s Growth Goal?
Posted in Economy, Politics, tagged Economy, GDP, Politics on June 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Plenty. In his economic speech on Tuesday, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty set out an ambitious goal for economic growth: Let’s grow the economy by 5%, instead of the anemic 2% currently envisioned. Such a national economic growth target will set our sights on a positive future. And inspire the actions needed to reach it. By [...]
Cars vs. Pedestrians vs. Bikes
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Life, New York City on June 8, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I am walking around my hometown of NYC today, so this video seems particularly apt. ht: kottke
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