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The Tax Burden
The New York Times published a very interesting article on taxes. Most importantly it is accompanied by great graphics illustrating the changing tax burden of households by income bracket over the...
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Cutting Through The Budget Nonsense
The media continues to direct out attention to deficits and debt as our main problems. Yet, it does little to really highlight the causes of these deficits and debts. The following two figures from...
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US Tax Rates
Considering the enormous time spent debating tax policy, it is easy to imagine that the U.S. must have one of the high tax rates in the world. Well, that is not the case. The Atlantic has a great blog...
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Corporations And The General Welfare
There is general agreement that the economy is not growing fast enough to boost employment. The question: What to do about it? The response, at all levels of government, seems to be: increase...
View ArticleThe Deficit Battle Continues
The so-called sequester appears likely to result in $85 billion in spending cuts this fiscal year. The cuts are ostensibly the result of a political battle over the budget deficit, with Republicans...
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The Austerity Agenda and Public Employment
While some austerity advocates really fear (although incorrectly) the consequences of deficit spending, the strongest proponents are actually only concerned with slashing government programs or the use...
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One Reason It Is Tough To Pass Progressive Legislation
Dylan Matthews, blogging in the Washington Post, discusses a very interesting paper that provides evidence showing that politicians seriously underestimate the progressivity of their constituents....
View ArticlePolitics In Command
If you were one of those people who were not persuaded that the U.S. debt level was reaching growth-threatening levels, pat yourself on the back. One of the major studies supporting the austerity...
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Austerity Is Not The Answer
The U.S. economy continues to stagnate and our political leaders continue to embrace austerity. One major reason for this policy stance is that stagnation has done nothing to dent the earnings of our...
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The Continuing Unsatisfactory Economic Expansion
Media and policy-makers seem anxious to convince us that the economy is in strong recovery mode. Therefore no further significant policy interventions are needed. Their optimism appears to rest...
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Unhappy Labor Day
As the Wall Street Journal reports: Four years into the economic recovery, U.S. workers’ pay still isn’t even keeping up with inflation. The average hourly pay for a nongovernment, non-supervisory...
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The Shrinking Labor Force
The government announced that the unemployment rate fell in August, down to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent in July. But there is little reason for cheer. As Business Week explained: The worrisome part...
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For A Stronger Public Sector
The current economic recovery officially began June 2009 and is one of the weakest in the post-World War II period by almost every indicator except growth in profits. One reason it has offered working...
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Goodbye Public Investment
As the following chart from the Financial Times shows, public sector gross capital investment–which includes government spending on infrastructure, scientific research, education, and other long-term...
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The Need For A Jobs Program
Talk of economic recovery distracts attention from the fact that this recovery largely remains a jobless one. The chart below, taken from Catherine Rampell’s New York Times blog, shows the number of...
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The Unemployed Dismissed
Congress left Washington D.C. without renewing an emergency program that extends the length of time the unemployed can receive unemployment insurance benefits. As it now stands, on December 28, 2013...
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Profits Without Social Benefit
The conventional explanation for our economic problems seems to be that our businesses are strapped for funds. Greater business earnings, it is said, will translate into needed investment, employment,...
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Tax Tricks And Globalization
Globalization offers companies many ways to boost profits at the public expense. A case in point: they can use differences in national tax laws to slash their taxes. Google, Apple, and Microsoft are...
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America: Land Of The Surveilled and Imprisoned
America stands out for the high share of its labor force that is employed in what economists Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev call “guard labor.” There are now more people working as private security...
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The Big Government Myth
This chart comes from Chuck Marr at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. As Marr explains: The United States is a relatively low-tax country, as the chart [above] shows. When measured as a...
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