That the gub’ment (say in your best Michigan militia accent) messes up the market’s pricing mechanism is nothing new. From rent control in New York City to the capital markets, legislators and gub’ment bureaucrats have a tendency to create uncertainty or else burden the private economy with all kinds of bad craziness, as Hunter Thompson would say. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the ‘The Economy’ Category
Eat the Rich. Oh, That’s Right, Rich Peeps Are Good for the Economy
The Tax Foundation website and blog are worth bookmarking. This excerpt from the Tax Foundation’s blog on the fight over extending the Bush tax cuts is worth reading and perhaps even sending to clients (those clients who like to talk politics anyway). It should be noted the Tax Foundation is non-partisan; it simply advocates a rational national tax policy and will whack Democrats and Republicans when they spew irrational (but politically attractive) tax policies. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s Daily Outrage, Mr. President, Please Pay My Mortgage
Barry, I want a new pony!
Could President Barry (as he used to call himself) Obama be planning a-before-election surprise? Let’s see, Fannie and Freedie (with Ginnie Mae) are directly responsible for the housing/credit bubble; in the first quarter of this year they bought up 95% of mortgage originations in the United States. Fannie and Freddie, now wards of the state, are still gushing red ink (with $330 billion in non-performing loans in Q1), and yet there are rumors that the Obama Administration, instead of closing these two loosey-goosey mortgage giants down, is going to use them to forgive some mortgage debt of homeowners who are under water. Is this buying votes or what? Read the rest of this entry »
Bullish about Housing, the Econ? This Might Change Your Mind
Barry Ritholz’s blog, The Big Picture, quotes Dhaval Joshi, chief strategist at RAB Capital, a London-based hedge fund:
“Can the U.S. economy really return to ‘business as usual’ when it has 4 million houses surplus to requirement [sic], when one out of four mortgages are in negative equity, and when by our calculation, it is burdened with $4 trillion of excess mortgage debt, equivalent to 30 percent of GDP?”
To read the full piece, go to Ritholtz’s blog and scroll down to the entry titled, “The $4 Trillion Question.”
It’s April 15, Pay Day, er, Tax Day, for Half the Population. Redistribution of Income Erodes Personal Liberty.
Only people who pay federal income tax should be able to vote in national elections. Only people who pay state income taxes should be able to vote in matters concerning their state. Similarly, only those who pay city/municipal/local income taxes should be allowed to have a say in the voting booth about local issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s Outrage: The NY Times’ Dignifying NJ Democrats’ Criticisms of Budget Cuts
New Jersey Gov. Christie yesterday presented a budget that cuts state spending by 5 percent. New Jersey Democratic legislators, the New York Times says, “were quick to characterize Mr. Christie’s proposal as falling disproportionately on the backs of the middle class, the poor, the elderly, schoolchildren, college students and inner-city residents, while leaving largely unscathed the wealthy and most businesses.” Gosh, did the Democrats leave any interest group out? Did they fail to demonize anyone that it should have? Read the rest of this entry »
Record Number of Tax Filers Paid No Federal Income Taxes in 2008
That’s the conclusion of The Tax Foundation, a “non-partisan” lobby group founded in 1937 that is pushing for — guess what? —sound tax policy. (Good luck with that!) The Tax Foundation also found that over 50 million nonpayers included families making over $50,000. Essentially, the gub’ment (say with best Michigan Militia accent) uses the tax code to “funnel money” to groups of people they want to reward, the Foundation concludes. Read the rest of this entry »
Government, via FHA, Still Doing Risky Loans
If you are in Congress and a Democrat, it sure is fun affecting populist Demagoguery to beat up on those money grubbing Wall Street and the “shadow” banking system. But check out the gub’ment’s (pronounce with a Michigan Militia accent, please) own role in the home mortgage market. Read the rest of this entry »
Most Americans Expect to Receive a Tax Refund
Amazing. About 60 percent of taxpayers surveyed expect to get a refund on their 2009 taxes. So, quite literally: most people are clients of the state, that is, they receive handouts from the government. The non-partisan Tax Foundation has been railing about this problem for some time. As Natasha Altamirano writes on the Tax Foundation’s blog, fiscally troubled states and the federal government’s “tax systems are heavily reliant on high-income earners, out-of-control spending, promises that can’t be met and millions off the tax rolls.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Business of Government Is the One Permanent Growth Industry
The Wall Street Journal reports today that in 2009 the number of unionized workers who labor for the gub’ment (say in your best Michigan Militia accent) exceeded union members in the private sector. (The numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The opinion piece makes the point that private sector employees—even union members—are subject to the “vagaries of the marketplace and economic growth.” And private union employment took a hit last year, losing 10.1 percent of private union jobs. Read the rest of this entry »
