If you care about maximizing government revenue that is:
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 for Research on the Economics of Taxation (IRET), […]
Archive for the 'Taxes' Category
Jan24th2012
Jan19th2012
University Of Chicago economist John Cochrane writes:
Intuitively, this is related to the theorem that you shouldn’t tax intermediate goods, or have tariffs for moving goods around the country. Romney’s income was taxed once, when he made it. It’s not efficient to tax it again, because he chose to save it rather than spend it immediately on […]
Sep12th2011
“Indeed, the share of top incomes coming from capital is much lower now than it has been historically. According to Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, for the richest Americans — those in the top 0.01 percent of the distribution — the percentage of income […]
Jul13th2011
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, ModernPolitics, Myths and Taxes. 2 Comments“BTW, progressives like Yglesias often point out that no matter what they say, the GOP is devoted single-mindedly to one goal, and one goal only—lower tax rates for the rich. And I have to agree that that is an obsession of many GOP economists. But then why the strange pattern of state […]
Apr21st2011
“Now we learn that on an income of $1.7 million, the Obamas paid $450,773 in taxes, taking full advantage of the Bush tax cuts. I think it is fair to ask: If the President believes that people like him ought to be paying more, then why didn’t he pay more? There is absolutely no rule […]
Mar30th2011
“Not only is Smith not endorsing a progressive income tax, he isn’t endorsing any sort of income tax. Reading further into the passage, he successively rejects taxes on income from capital, taxes on wages, and taxes on the income of professionals. The only income he approves of taxing is the income […]
Feb16th2011
For the record, I support Obama’s plan to reduce the mortgage interest deduction for the wealthy:
As the part of the new budget, the personal itemized deduction phaseout would be re-instated for high-earning individuals. The phaseout is pretty complex, and essentially means that itemized deductions are phased-out at higher income levels. (I am […]
Feb1st2011
The Left vs Right Economic Model (aka Europe vs United States model)
Published by in Discrimination, Economics, Europe, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Inequality, Personal and Taxes. 6 CommentsMy good friend Jon asked an important question: why not prefer the European economic model vs the United States economic model? I didn’t want to bog down his comments section with a long response, so I thought I’d post my longer response here.
Basically, there are two paradigms, two “visions” of an economy. The first, is […]
Sep17th2010
“This is sort of impressive: Paul Krugman simultaneously castigates Republicans for the fiscal irresponsibility of wanting to extend tax cuts for the rich that cost about $700 billion–and for irresponsibly threatening the extension of tax cuts for the middle class which cost three times as much. Yet you could read the […]
Jul15th2010
The WSJ reports:
Even if all Bush tax cuts are extended and the AMT is patched, tax revenues will rebound to 18.2% of GDP by 2020—slightly above the historical average. They will continue growing afterwards…
CBO figures show spending…which has averaged 20.3% of GDP over the past 50 years… surging to a peacetime record 26.5% of GDP […]
Jul7th2010
The Next Fiscal Stimulus
Published by in Economics, Fiscal Stimulus, ModernPolitics and Taxes. 1 CommentHarvard economist Ed Glaeser gives his recommendation:
But if America does embrace another stimulus round, we should limit the government’s role to being the big borrower rather than the big spender. Cutting payroll taxes for lower-income workers who have just been unemployed is an example of stimulus through borrowing, rather than spending. […]
Apr27th2010
From The Atlantic article “How Taxes Changed Boxing“:
“The 1950s was the era of the 90 percent top marginal tax rate, and by the end of that decade live gate receipts for top championship fights were supplemented by the proceeds from closed circuit telecasts to movie theaters. A second fight in one tax year would yield […]
Apr15th2010
“A recent survey by Pew revealed that 86 percent of conservatives agree that “not reporting all income on your taxes is morally wrong” compared to only 68 percent of liberals. Conservatives want lower taxes but feel they should pay what they owe. Liberals want you to pay more but don’t stress about paying their own.” — Ron Guhname
Apr2nd2010
“Here’s the $64 dollar question for which I’ve never seen progressives provide a satisfactory answer. Why is per capita GDP in Western Europe so much lower than in the US? Mankiw seems to imply that high tax rates may be one of the reasons. I don’t know if that’s the answer, but if it’s not my […]
Jan19th2010
Greg Mankiw explains:
One thing we have learned over the past couple years is that Washington is not going to let large financial institutions fail. The bailouts of the past will surely lead people to expect bailouts in the future. Bailouts are a specific type of subsidy–a contingent subsidy, but a subsidy nonetheless.
In the presence of a government subsidy, […]
Nov30th2009
More On Tax Cuts Vs Fiscal Stimulus
Published by in Economics, Fiscal Stimulus, ModernPolitics and Taxes. 0 CommentsFrom Harvard’s Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna:
Large changes in fiscal policy: taxes versus spending
We examine the evidence on episodes of large stances in fiscal policy, both in cases of fiscal stimuli and in that of fiscal adjustments in OECD countries from 1970 to 2007. Fiscal stimuli based upon tax cuts are more likely to increase […]
