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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Budget’
Do Federal Workers Get Paid More Than Private Ones?
Posted in Budget, tagged Budget, CBO, Government, Labor on January 31, 2012 | 5 Comments »
How Much Does the United States Really Owe?
Posted in Budget, tagged Accounting, Budget, Debt on January 27, 2012 | 8 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% [...]
Time’s Almost Up for $152 Billion in Expiring Provisions
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Taxes on December 12, 2011 | 2 Comments »
America is increasingly governed by temporary policies. The 2001/2003/2010 tax cuts get most of the attention, but they are hardly the only ones. There are also a host of other semi-permanent provisions like patching the alternative minimum tax (AMT), avoiding big cuts to what Medicare pays doctors (the “doc fix”), and a plethora of miscellaneous [...]
The Rising Risk of Social Unrest
Posted in Budget, International, tagged Budget, Employment, jobs, unemployment on November 5, 2011 | 4 Comments »
The risk of social unrest is on the rise around much of the world, according to polling data summarized in the International Labour Organization’s latest World of Work Report (ht: Tortsen Slok). The ILO estimates that the risk of unrest has risen the most in advanced economies over the past five years, followed by the Middle [...]
What Should We Do With Higher Gas Tax Revenues?
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, tagged Budget, Gasoline, Infrastructure, Oil, Taxes on November 1, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Most of the economics bloggers I know favor higher gasoline taxes. Not immediately, of course, given our economic weakness. But eventually because of environmental and national security concerns. As noted yesterday, Tim Kane of the Kauffman Foundation does a quarterly survey of economics bloggers. This time around, Tim included a question from me about the [...]
The Latest Sovereign Debt Meme? Going Big
Posted in Budget, International, tagged Budget, Debt, Deficit, Europe on September 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The developed world is awash in sovereign debt. Greece stands on the precipice of painful (and inevitable) default. Italy and Spain struggle to convince markets that their debts are good. Portugal and Ireland hope to get in the lifeboat with Italy and Spain, rather than drown with Greece. And then there’s the United States. Much further from a sovereign crisis than many Euro nations, [...]
S&P’s $2 Trillion Error
Posted in Budget, Finance, Politics, tagged Budget, Debt, Deficit on August 7, 2011 | 22 Comments »
In the final hours before Friday’s historic downgrade, Standard & Poors gave Treasury an advance copy of its report. Amazingly, that report contained a $2 trillion error in its calculations of U.S. deficits and debt over the next decade. Here are four things you should know about it. 1. Treasury hoped that S&P would change its decision [...]
Most Requested
Twitter
Get Updates by Email
Get Updates by RSS
Share or Bookmark
-
Recent Posts
- 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
- Getting Better But a Long Way to Go
- How Do Consumers Spend Engine Efficiency Advances? On Bigger, Faster Cars
- Lose an Election, Gain a Think Tank
30-Second Economics
Tags
Categories
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
Translate this blog into
