Tag Archives | taxes

Corporate taxes.

By on May 4, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

There has been and continues to be a lot of debate amongst people as to whether or not a corporate tax rate should exist, there is a piece now over at Project Syndicate about this issue. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-corporate-tax-conundrum These arguments seem to center around a couple things, one that taxing corporations amounts to double taxation, another that it [...]

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Recent Letter to The Editor in Michigan

By on April 29, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

“Sleight of Hand” Vince Kasprzak in his editorial comment uses sleight of hand when he quotes from the Tax Policy Center and adds his own comment: “This year households that make more than $1 million will pay 29.1% of their income in federal taxes.” and then Vince adds: “Forty-seven percent of households pay no income [...]

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The psychological impact of GDP rates.

By on April 29, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

The preliminary GDP numbers are our for first quarter 2012 and the same story we have heard lately is being re-played, personal expenditures are up but government spending is down. The early number for Q1 is 2.2% Now my question is what number do we need to sustain to take away the psychological funk created [...]

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A funny thing from local politics.

By on March 4, 2012 in General Discussion, Politics

This is just a bit of fluff, but I found it so absurd that I just had to pass it along. There is a Republican running for state senate out of the area where I live, his adds feature a message about how property taxes are killing people and how this person should be elected [...]

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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback: The Anti-Robin Hood

By on February 16, 2012 in Economics, Politics

Interesting article on page A4 of ‘The Wall Street Journal’ today, titled “Budget Overhaul Splits Kansas GOP”.   Kansas Governor Sam Brownback wants to raise taxes on the poor in Kansas, while slashing them for the rich. This is apparently too extreme even for some ‘moderate’ members of the Kansas GOP, who are fighting him, [...]

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Krugman on Mitt Romney’s tax rate

By on January 21, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

Paul Krugman has a good article on the preferential tax treatment the rich in America enjoy:   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/opinion/krugman-taxes-at-the-top.html?_r=1&hp Excerpts: ~~~~~~~~~~ Since 1992, the I.R.S. has been releasing income and tax data for the 400 highest-income filers. In 2008, the most recent year available, these filers paid only 18.1 percent of their income in federal income [...]

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Redefining capitalism – as I wish it.

By on January 15, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

The latest number I could find for annual US corporate profit is approximately $2.1 Trillion. The latest number I could find for US population age 65 and over is 40 million. If I assume that half of those seniors represent married couples, then we are looking at 30 million potentially retired families. If I divide [...]

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Keeping things in perspective.

By on December 27, 2011 in Economics, General Discussion

On Bloomberg they now have a opinion piece by Andrew Puzder CEO of CKE Restaurants Inc. the corporation that runs such restaurants as Hardy’s. In this piece he talks about how the implementation of “obamacare” will cost CKE 18 million dollars a year meaning that it will hurt CKE’s ability to hire and re-invest. Here’s the thing though,if [...]

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After-Tax Incentive for Economic Advancement

By on December 2, 2011 in Economics, General Discussion, Human Behavior

A critique of high upper-class taxation, popularized by Reagan, is that if you over-tax the upper class, they won’t bother to work hard, because the after-tax gain from additional effort will be too small to justify that incremental increase in personal investment. In theory, that could be correct.  There’s a point where the extra reward [...]

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In the US, the winds of Washington Politics don’t blow, they Suck.

By on November 22, 2011 in Economics, Politics

Gerrymandering the Jobs Bill: “The piece of the jobs bill Republicans will pass would end a requirement that the government withhold three percent of the cost of projects contracted out to private companies, to assure tax compliance. It’s a rule that Congress adopted during the Bush administration to cut down on tax cheating by government [...]

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