The International Economy recently invited me to contribute to a forum on how best to fix America’s tax system. Here’s my piece; for eleven other views, check out the complete forum. America’s tax system is a mess. It’s needlessly complicated, economically harmful, and often unfair. And it doesn’t raise enough money to pay our bills. That’s why almost everyone agrees [...]
Archive for the ‘Budget’ Category
Five Principles for Fixing America’s Tax System
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Politics, Taxes on February 17, 2012 | 7 Comments »
How Would the Buffett Rule Affect Marginal Tax Rates?
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Taxes, Warren Buffett on February 15, 2012 | 1 Comment »
President Obama’s latest budget endorses a “Buffett rule” – a new floor on taxes paid by folks with very high incomes. His rule would require that “those making over $1 million should pay no less than 30 percent of their income in taxes.” The president didn’t offer many specifics about how the rule would actually work. Up on Capitol [...]
The 102% Tax Rate and Other Perils Measuring Tax Rates
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Measurement, New York Times, Taxes on February 8, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Over at the Tax Policy Center’s blog, TaxVox, my colleague Roberton Williams examines the pitfalls that afflict some efforts to measure a person’s tax rate: Investment manager James Ross last week told New York Times columnist James Stewart that his combined federal, state, and local tax rate was 102 percent. No doubt, Ross did pay a lot [...]
Do Federal Workers Get Paid More Than Private Ones?
Posted in Budget, tagged Budget, CBO, Government, Labor on January 31, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Yes, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office. As always in such comparisons, however, there are some caveats. CBO summarizes its main results in this handy chart: Report author Justin Faulk summarizes the findings as follows: Differences in total compensation—the sum of wages and benefits—between federal and private-sector employees also varied according [...]
How Much Does the United States Really Owe?
Posted in Budget, tagged Accounting, Budget, Debt on January 27, 2012 | 9 Comments »
My latest column at the Christian Science Monitor takes a crack at this perennial question. Short version: You ought to add about $4.6 trillion to whatever debt figure you are using. Why? Because the United States has about $7.3 trillion in non-debt liabilities (mostly pension and health benefits), offset by about 2.7 trillion in assets. These numbers aren’t perfect–for [...]
Capital Gains Taxes Are Going Up
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Capital Gains, Taxes on January 24, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The top tax rate on long-term capital gains is currently 15%. That’s why Mitt Romney is spending so much time talking about his tax returns. That revelation has set off a familiar debate about whether that low rate is appropriate. Often overlooked in these discussions, however, is the fact that the days of the 15% [...]
Top Posts of 2011
Posted in Blog Admin, Budget on December 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Happy almost New Year everyone! As we head into 2012, here’s a look back at the most popular (by pageviews) posts from 2011. Federal budget issues dominate the list, but pizza, cupcakes, and North Korea also made the cut. Why do half of Americans pay no federal income tax? (Spoiler: low incomes) The day the United [...]
Santa, Could You Please Give Me the Impossible?
Posted in Budget, tagged Humor on December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
My lovely wife sends me a Christmas card: P.S. More cards here from smileecards.
The Most Important Economic Chart of the Year
Posted in Budget, Economy, Finance, International, tagged Europe, Graphics, Interest Rates on December 21, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Ezra Klein surveyed 18 economists for their charts of the year. Here’s my candidate, courtesy of Spiegel Online: This chart illustrates the end of euro complacency. Investors once acted as though the euro eliminated not just currency risk but sovereign credit risk. All nations–from Greece to Germany–could borrow at the same low rates. No longer. [...]
Even More Expiring Provisions
Posted in Budget, Taxes on December 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Two follow ups on the nice Pew chart of many federal laws that expire at year-end. First, commenter rjs reminds us that “the whole [darn] [continuing resolution] expires Friday.” In short, almost all discretionary agencies of the federal government run out of money at the end of the week. The one exception? Agriculture, whose 2012 [...]
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Recent Posts
- The Miracle of Chained Kidney Transplants
- Five Principles for Fixing America’s Tax System
- How Would the Buffett Rule Affect Marginal Tax Rates?
- Financial Answers Made Simple
- The 102% Tax Rate and Other Perils Measuring Tax Rates
- When Should You Stop Looking for a Possibly-Extinct Species?
- A Sunday Numeracy Quiz
- The U.S. Economy is Uncertain, Fragile, and … Growing
- Do Federal Workers Get Paid More Than Private Ones?
- Online Education and Self-Driving Cars
- How Much Does the United States Really Owe?
- Can One Professor Teach 500,000 Students At Once?
- Capital Gains Taxes Are Going Up
- The Natural Gas Glut is Reshaping Electricity Markets
- Oil and Natural Gas Prices Move Even Further Apart
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