Working Life

Got crabs? Cut corporate taxes. Can’t get your kid to eat spinach? Cut corporate taxes. Worried your skin it too dry? Cut corporate taxes. And, then, of course, want the economy to be more "competitive" and "grow"? Cut corporate taxes. None of the above will be helped by cutting corporate taxes–but the reasons given for […]

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   I almost choked on my breakfast this morning–it turns out we still have a Secretary of Labor: President Obama will welcome 12 labor leaders to the White House on Friday for yet another meeting. The purpose of the meeting, which Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will join, is "to discuss strengthening our economy, spurring growth, […]

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   We weren’t invited to the CEO summit with the president (you missed chicken and fish for lunch, by the way). But, I think there is a huge point being missed: The White House has been pursuing a charm offensive with the biggest U.S. employers in recent weeks, hoping to convince them to plow some […]

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   Excuse me, knock, knock–are you one of these people? Apparently, one-third of these people live in California and New York. I know I’d get laughed out of my building: Wealth-X estimates that there are 700 Americans with a net worth of more than $750 million, 400 with $500-$750 million, 3,200 with $200-$500 million, 6,400 […]

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   Much of the debate about the deal cut between the White House and Republicans is focused on what could or could not get done, and the notion that the president got the best deal he could get given the circumstances. I think there is still a legitimate point to be made that even given […]

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   Trying to advance the theme a bit here–since there are enough people correctly taking the White House to task for capitulating to the Republicans on the tax cuts for the very rich–I’d like to raise our eyes up a bit eyer to two years out.    The president just said, at a news conference, […]

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   For those of you who might remember the days of the Carter Administration when the U.S. embassy workers in Teheran were held under lock and key for a very long time–"Nightline" got its ratings boost, and made its name, from the nightly graphic trumpeting how many days America had been "held hostage". Well, we […]

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I have a new book out today: It’s Not Raining, We’re Getting Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis. You can get it here at the site or get a really cool version on Kindle or Nook–click the image over there on the right for more details.  {attachment id=162 size=medium}    The upshot can […]

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   Glad this is out, from the Congressional Budget Office: By contrast, policies that would temporarily increase the aftertax income of people with relatively high income, such as an across-the-board reduction in income taxes or an increase in the exemption amount for the AMT, would have smaller effects because such tax cuts would probably not […]

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    Let’s see. Republicans are trying to save us all from the phony deficit "crisis". So, they announce this: Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, drove the point home as soon as the Senate convened by announcing that he would support a proposed ban on Congressional earmarks, reversing his longtime practice of avidly […]

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