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category archive listing Category Archives: Fiscal policy

time to cut the shit people - we’ve got an election to win

From TPM comes the latest Reuters/Zogby Poll, showing McCain within reach of the brass ring:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain runs even with Democratic rival Barack Obama and narrowly leads Hillary Clinton in potential match-ups in November, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released Wednesday.
McCain was seen as a better steward of the economy than either Democrat [...]

the many reasons why mccain’s tax holiday idea sucks

First, from The Conservative Nanny State author Dean Baker:
According to the oil industry, they have their refineries running flat out, producing all the gas they can. This means that the price is determined on the demand side.
We have a fixed amount of gas entering the market, the question is simply what price clears the market. [...]

greenspan endorsed mccain? what a shock.

Because who better to back a presidential candidate who doesn’t understand economics than someone giving the reacharound to BushCo and the banks while fucking the U.S. economy into recession?
[Alan] Greenspan, the U.S. Fed chairman from 1987 to 2006, endorsed the Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the interview.
“I’m Republican and I support John McCain, who [...]

groundhog day

Read Mike the Mad Biologist on the many ways in which the Treasury Secretary and the rest of BushCo is full of shit (on the solvency of Social Security, that is):
Unfortunately, our idiot press corps is unable to discern the basic facts of Social Security, such as the Board of Trustees is mandated by law [...]

not dumbstruck -

just holding our breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast thinks the great mass of Americans have been dumbstruck by the massive bailout of Bear Stearns:
The silence from the American people surrounding the collapse of Bear Stearns and the shoveling of taxpayer cash into the hole left after the implosion [...]

money makes the world go ’round

And without much of that home equity liquidity extant in the consumer hive that is the U.S., liquidity and manufacturing are drying up worldwide while inflation rides high on record oil prices. Haven’t we seen this movie before?
From our international banker this morning:
The US Institute for Supply Management said its index of factory activity [our [...]

what’s wrong with this picture?

(Other than the fact that we earned $12 in interest income last year.)
I just did our taxes. This is the form from our TaxCut software* which shows our income matched against the national average.
I’m not an economist, but when the median income in this country is about $48,000, the rich have to be very, [...]

more economic news

Inflation on the rise, foreclosures at records levels and the dollar’s in the toilet; have fun running on Republican fiscal responsibility, St. John! From our international banker this morning:
Heavy and continuing dollar sales for euro. Reportedly the dollar sales are coming from Chinese, Korean and Middle East names. The sales drove the US [...]

a trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration unveiled a massive $3.1-trillion budget Monday with soaring deficits.
Main features of the proposed spending plan call for sizable increases in military spending while protecting President George W. Bush’s signature tax cuts.
It shows the U.S. government spending at $3 trillion in a 12-month period for the first time in history.
Despite the [...]

will greenspan ever shut his fucking trap?

He was instrumental in the biggest financial meltdown in history, pushing banking deregulation and “creative” loan products that unwound the U.S. economy, but evidently it was all worth it:
Greenspan said on Thursday that subprime mortgages were risky, but they helped broaden home ownership.
During a speech to a financial audience in Vancouver, Greenspan said subprime mortgages [...]

Consumption versus income tax

Pay no taxes

There is an article in the Guardian Unlimited today about Mike Huckabee’s proposed Federal tax reform. Low and behold it sounds virtually identical to Mike Gravel’s proposal. If anyone knows which Mike crossed the road first, please let me know in the comments.
As with any major tax reform, there would be [...]

Our tax dollars at work

Go out and buy a car this year and save $600 on your taxes. That is the message being touted by Senator Cantwell and Representative Baird

Income tax forms

at Vancouver Ford yesterday as spewed by our local newspaper’s article, “Residents Reminded of Sales Tax Break”.
Here are a few facts our residents were not reminded about [...]