taxes

This is a thought experiment. I have written in favour of private sector involvement in the past. And I don't think this is a controversial topic. Where I do have problems with the Cypriot bank saver's tax is in terms of property rights and…

The latest news out of Cyprus is that the Cyrpiot government has delayed the vote on a bank bailout and savers tax by one day to Monday and that it has also extended the bank holiday from just Monday to Tuesday as well. In my view, the news…

Of all of the elements of the US fiscal cliff, the most damaging from a consumer perspective is likely to be the increase in payroll taxes as it hits a broad swathe of consumers in the middle class. This was confirmed today via the release…

As I have been predicting since the beginning of the year, I believe the Republicans will be able to force through some form of austerity before the budget battles in Washington are over this quarter. As the year began, we saw the fiscal…

Last night I was on BBC World News and BBC Radio talking about the fiscal cliff. I stressed the fact that the deal being worked out in Washington will still see a hefty rise in taxes for the middle class via the payroll tax and for wealthy…

Here's a very good video on MMT with Stephanie Kelton, the chair of the Economics department at the University of Missouri at Kansas City talking to Lauren Lyster of RT's Capital Account. As you know, despite my Austrian bias and my…

According to recent estimates by Goldman Sachs, the US economy is already at stall speed, with GDP growth for Q4 expected to be an anemic 1%. Any further cuts to growth beyond this due to the fiscal cliff in 2013 would cause a recession.…

Just a quick note here - I was on Capital Account last night talking about what I expect to happen politically next year. I spelled out some of it in my last post on the US election and the Fiscal Cliff. But here is a more complete view…

Josh Barro has written a very comprehensive post at Bloomberg analsying Mitt Romney's tax plan. His conclusion is that the plan is mathematically impossible, leading one to assume that a President Romney would have to break his pledge on…

Mired in the worst recession since the 1970s, Portugal's governing coalition is going to turn up the austerity dial even higher. The goal is to reduce the Portuguese deficit to 4.5% of GDP in 2013 in order to be in a position to switch out…