taxes

Here’s a good segment from CNBC with an interview from two city mayors, the mayor of El Centro, CA that has 26.9% unemployment, the highest in the nation, and the mayor of Flint, MI, which is imploding due to the decline in the U.S. car…

It’s not just California.  Tax revenue is falling everywhere. State income-tax revenue fell 26% in the first four months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to a survey of states by the nonprofit Nelson A.…

As understandable as the Congressional response to the AIG bonuses was, the reality is that this does create a number of disturbing precedents. We have a stupid Congress mindlessly lashing out to compensate for its own complicity in…

California's problems are well-known. They have been in the making for sometime. When I predicted a U.S. state would go bust this year, California was very much on my mind. But, frankly, Kansas was nowhere on my radar screen. Now…

This is pretty funny actually (Hat tip Michael Turk).

As the New Year unfolds, it is time for predictions. I have done my part, giving a full account of where I see things headed in 2009 in my post "Top ten predictions for the 2009 global economy" and where I want to see them headed in 2009 in…

There has been a general outcry for economic stimulus on the part of the North American, U.K. and Eurozone federal governments to counteract the fall in private sector consumption. In the U.S. and the U.K. in particular, this message is…

Not if you believe the figures from a University of Calgary - C.D. Howe Institute study comparing tax rates in 80 countries - remember, they're Canadians (hat tip Stephen Gordon). In this list, which includes all the major economies, the…

The chart below is yet another from Perot Charts. I have no particular message in mind with this chart except to inform my readers how the government gets and uses tax monies. One issue to note is the outsize proportion of taxes that…

I have been meaning to address the issue of State and local governments for some time, because during the boom they were flush with cash from property taxes. The obvious parallel is an expected shortfall during this downturn. One can…