Part 1 Part 2 The challenge of creating an economically sound, simpler, and more just tax code, be it the existing code, 9-9-9, a flat tax, or a sales tax will remain an impossibility if tax revenues is the only focus of any reform. The problem that dwarfs any notion of how tax policy is [...]

Part 1 Is an economically sound, simpler, and more just tax code even possible? The truth of the matter is that there are too many people on the Left and the Right who do not want a simpler tax code that treats everyone equally. It’s probably not because the defenders of the existing system necessarily [...]

Here’s a very fascinating video taken at New York’s Zuccotti Park where Peter Schiff has a dialogue with some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Schiff brought a sign that read “I Am the 1% Let’s Talk,” and talk they did. One of the things that occurred to me watching this was how little true [...]

LAS VEGAS – Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul unveiled his economic “Plan to Restore America” in Las Vegas Monday afternoon, calling for a lower corporate tax rate, a cut in spending by $1 trillion during his first year in office and the elimination of five cabinet-level agencies.” […] Paul does get specific when he [...]

From Anarchists Against Collectivism

The 2012 G.O.P. candidates each gave speeches at CPAC following the debates. Below are the speeches from Gary Johnson and Ron Paul. The first video is Johnson’s presentation before perhaps the largest audience he has had in awhile. Johnson spends a good part of his presentation introducing himself before giving an overview of his proposals. [...]

The title of this post ought to be a red flag no matter who the president is or what your political persuasion. President Obama is demanding that congress pass his “American Jobs Act” in front of supportive crowds of people who I am sure have taken the time to read the whole bill and understand [...]

The Standards and Poor rating service has downgraded the U.S. Federal Government’s bonds to AA+ status. This action long overdue does not go far enough. To understand the meaning of this, we should first understand the meaning of the S&P ratings. The ratings indicate several things: 1) The likelihood of a default – the debtor [...]

So the big debate is whether the gov’t should sell their post-IPO shares in GM. At current prices, they’d [unsurprisingly] be losing money on the sale, compared to the amount put up in the bailout. So we have to ask — was it worth it? To determine that, we can’t base our entire calculation on [...]

I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time reading 74 pages of forum posts on an pilot’s message board discussing the crash of Air France flight 447 several years ago. Fascinating stuff. It’s the tale of pilots faced with a situation of mechanical failure, but even worse, a situation which they misdiagnosed and thus took [...]

There is always danger is using trendlines as an analysis of what things “should” do, because past performance may not entirely reflect future situations. But I thought the below was incredibly striking. My first response was… “WOW! That looks bad!” My second response was “I wonder if the demographics of the baby boomer generation retiring [...]

The big one making the rounds today is the NYT story on people who’ve simply stopped paying their mortgages, living in their houses for free, waiting on the potential eventual foreclosure machine to spit them out whenever it gets around to it (which isn’t happening quickly). Quite a few folks (TJIC, James Joyner) are weighing [...]

Okay, that’s not true. But it’s no different than this: Prosecutors Ask if 8 Banks Duped Rating Agencies Wall Street played a crucial role in the mortgage market’s path to collapse. Investment banks bundled mortgage loans into securities and then often rebundled those securities one or two more times. Those securities were given high ratings [...]

Ezra Klein, reviewing Michael Lewis’ The Big Short, on the financial meltdown: Like the poor, idiots will always be with us. In fact, we’ll frequently be among them. The seductions of group-think, the tendency to trust experts, the incentives for employees to go along with their bosses rather than contradict them and the need to [...]

Those of us who predicted lenders would avoid US Treasuries during the financial meltdown we initially somewhat surprised to see investors flocking to them. It’s the result of a supposed “flight to quality”, and nothing at the time seemed less risky than buying US Treasury bonds, since the Treasury sells its bonds in a currency [...]

Those of us who truly believe in limited government* tend to be simultaneously amused and irritated hearing the folks at CPAC speak of limited government as though it’s a principle they truly support. Yesterday, the Libertarian Party’s Executive Director Wes Benedict, monitoring the CPAC festivities from afar, said some of the things that many of [...]

Seems many Republicans are looking to change their narrative. Just in case there is an actual economic recovery (I’m personally still betting double-dip), they want to start blaming Obama for the deficits and spending rather than the pathetic jobs numbers. To this, Kevin Drum asks: Well, at least we’ve been prepared. If the economy sucks, [...]

Politicians all try to sell spending by underselling the true cost: 1) They determine a plan to spend money, sell it as low spending. 2) Despite pundits claiming it will be much higher than projected, they claim it’s not true. 3) When the spending is actually measured, it’s often higher than pundits’ estimates. We’ve all [...]

When I heard there was going to be a Hayek vs. Keynes rap battle, I was amused. And then I watched it, and realized it’s actually pretty good. Enjoy.

from RJ Matson, NY Observer Hat Tip: Ritholtz, The Big Picture