Tax bill stalled
The sticking point at the moment seems to be something to do with tacking on a raise in the estate tax, but you try to figure it out (see also here). It should never have come to this, of course; … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Finance and economics
Dowd, Palin the huntress, and protecting wealth
Maureen Dowd seems deeply offended by Sarah Palin’s shooting a moose on the latest episode of her TLC Alaskan show (actually, Dowd seems to be deeply offended by nearly everything Palin does, including drawing breath). You may wonder why I … Continue reading →
Let’s make a deal: taxes and unemployment insurance
We’ve gotten so unused to Congressional deals during the past couple of years (except among the Democrats themselves, to get votes from Blue Dogs) that the prospect of this one seems odd and novel. But the Dems are poised to … Continue reading →
About extending those Bush tax cuts
Lots of blah, blah, blah in Washington about whether or not to extend those Bush tax cuts, and to whom, and for how long. The problem with arguing about such things, of course, is that no one really knows what … Continue reading →
Europe’s day of reckoning
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee. The more Europe yokes its economies together, the more likely it is that problems with one country will pull the others down. The idea, of course, was … Continue reading →
About those Bush tax cuts and whether they will expire
We’ve certainly been getting mixed messages today. When I first saw this piece suggesting that Axelrod had put out the word that Obama was ready to capitulate on the complete list of Bush tax cuts, even for the wealthy, I … Continue reading →
Don’t look now…
…but there may be more trouble ahead. I don’t pretend to have a truly informed opinion on what will actually happen. But I’ve heard a great many ominous rumblings about it.
Continue reading →Investigating Dobbs
Lou Dobbs has raised the ire of the left because he’s against illegal immigration, and has criticized firms that hire illegals. Now the intrepid Nation has mounted a year-long investigation to turn up illegals in Dobbs’s past, and they have … Continue reading →
McDonald’s meets Obamacare
This is one of those fabulous unintended consequences of Obamacare: While many restaurants don’t offer health coverage, McDonald’s provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for … Continue reading →
Don’t forget The Forgotten Man
Note the following, from a 2007 (that is: pre-Obama, pre-financial meltdown) review of The Forgotten Man, the Amity Shlaes book on the Great Depression: As Shlaes emphasizes, the New Dealers tended to see business as an institution to be squeezed … Continue reading →
To Nancy Pelosi: I do not think that word means…
…what you think it means: Pelosi’s word, by the way, is “momentum.” I think she’s using it to mean, “nowhere to go but up.” The phrase occurs around 8:10 here:I listened to the whole thing, quite fascinated with Pelosi’s arguments … Continue reading →
Larry Summers says buh-bye
The White House has announced that economics adviser Larry Summers is leaving. I’ve been anticipating this move for quite some time (see this), and I’m certainly not the only one (see this). The real question is: why is Summers leaving? … Continue reading →