This article provides an interesting case study of some of the important problems which have been plaguing the labor market ever since the onset of the Great Recession in 2007. It also corroborates some of the recently published findings in Casey Mulligan’s book entitled The Redistribution Recession; specifically, Professor Mulligan’s finding that increases in the benefits available to unemployed workers help to explain the depth of the Great Recession which began in 2007 and the slowness of the recovery (particularly in the labor market) since then.
Obama’s Famous Tax ‘Victory’ – WSJ.com
WSJ columnist Kim Strassel writes, “Top marginal income tax rates may go up. But the president’s second-term spending wish list will be history.”]]>
Peter Schiff: The Fantasy of a 91% Top Income Tax Rate – WSJ.com.
Peter Schiff parses the historical facts on the incidence of the US income tax; by incidence, I mean the actual taxes that one pays as a function of his or her actual income. By doing so, he corroborates an important fact, which is that the US already has in place one of the more progressive personal income tax systems in the world (for further evidence to this effect, see Table 4.5 of the Tax Foundationarticle entitled “No Country Leans on Upper-Income Households as Much as U.S.”). Furthermore, Schiff notes that “A liberal article of faith that confiscatory taxes fed the postwar boom turns out to be an Edsel of an economic idea.”
The Economist debates this issue and the answer is apparently “yes” by a margin of 51-49 – not all that different from the US presidential election outcome, with the MBA student losing out in both cases…
A wonderful photo-essay on Christmas from our friends at the Boston Globe. Quoting from this article,
“The appearance of multiple simultaneous Santa Clauses is a sure sign that mankind’s most widely recognized and commercialized religious holiday is near. It’s also a sign that the holiday is celebrated by many more people than just faithful Christians, for better or worse. From the traditional Christmas markets in Germany to elfin divers feeding dolphins in Japan to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem where it all began, Christmas is observed worldwide for commercial, irreverent, and religious reasons. Gathered here are images of people as they herald the advance of an entire season built, loosely or faithfully, around the birth of Jesus Christ.”
