socialist-economics

I helped create the GOP tax myth. Tax cuts don't equal growth. - Washington Post Unpopular Delusions and the Madness of... http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2017/09/i-helped-create-the-gop-tax-myth-tax-cuts-dont-equal-growth-washington-post-unpopular-delusions-and-the-madness-of.html I helped create the GOP tax myth. Tax cuts don't equal growth. - Washington Post Unpopular Delusions and the Madness of Elites - Paul Krugman Why Public Health Insurance Could Help, Even if You Don't Want It - NYTimes Tax Cuts for "Pass-Through" Businesses are Cuts for Rich People - Dean Baker The Trump Tax Reform's Pass-Through Boondoggle - Justin Fox Economists Have No Use for Republican Tax Cuts - Noah Smith The signalling content of asset prices for inflation - VoxEU Voodoo Gets Even Voodooier - Paul Krugman The View from 2012: The Hiatus in Per Capita US GDP - Econbrowser Interview: Research Director of the New York Fed - Liberty Street Economics Is Globalizati...

Stabilizing and Strengthening ACA Nongroup Markets https://www.urban.org/research/publication/stabilizing-and-strengthening-aca-nongroup-markets Uncertainty about federal support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues to threaten enrollment and stability in the nongroup insurance markets. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are likely to continue their efforts to repeal and replace the law. But targeted policies could fix the ACA's problems without sacrificing its gains in coverage, affordability, and access to care. These policies would stabilize the nongroup insurance markets, encourage insurer participation, improve affordability, and rein in premium growth. We divide these policies into two categories: those that should be implemented immediately to stabilize the markets and those that would strengthen the ACA for the long term.  -- via my feedly newsfeed

Is the US Media Ignoring Puerto Rico? http://ritholtz.com/2017/09/media-ignoring-puertorico/ fivethirtyeight: "Hurricane Maria has been relatively ignored. Data from Media Cloud, a database that collects news published on the internet every day, shows that the devastation in Puerto Rico is getting comparatively little attention."     Source: 538   The post  Is the US Media Ignoring Puerto Rico?  appeared first on  The Big Picture .  -- via my feedly newsfeed

Economic Update - Capitalism, Revolution, and Socialism - 09.24.17 http://economicupdate.podbean.com/e/economic-update-capitalism-revolution-and-socialism-092117/  -- via my feedly newsfeed

When Domestic Politics Trumps Foreign Policy: The United States and the Iran Nuclear Deal http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/29/09/2017/when-domestic-politics-trumps-foreign-policy-united-states-and-iran-nuclear-deal n the run-up to the nuclear deal's second anniversary, Cornelius Adebahr warns of the need for a rational approach to Iran. For over three decades, American policy towards Iran could build on broad consensus. Democrats as much as Republicans were eager to be 'tough on Iran', imposing sanctions on the country, threatening allies over their less hostile relationship with Tehran, and generally not shying away from talk about how desirable (induced) regime change was. In a way, it was a perfect example of the ' politics stops at the water's edge ' maxim  coined during the onset of the Cold War exactly 70 years ago. This bipartisan accord has now become the victim of a clearly circumscribed, yet considerable policy success: the nuclear deal of July ...

Trump's "Give the Rich a Break" Tax Plan http://ataxingmatter.blogs.com/tax/2017/09/trumps-give-the-rich-a-break-tax-plan.html National GOP leaders on Wednesday released a 9-page document that they called a tax "framework" (available  here  on the Washington Post site) describing in vague terms how they intend to cut taxes for the nation's wealthiest people while doing very little that serves the government needs. Overall, the GOP framework would amount to about $2.2 TRILLION in less revenue to support federal programs (like protecting the environment from corporate pollutants, supporting higher education loans for students, funding basic university research) (assuming $5.8 trillion loss to lowering rates and shift to territorial system and maybe $3.6 trillion recouped by eliminating as yet unspecified deductions).  See G OP proposes deep tax cuts, provides few details on how to pay for them , Washington Post (Sept. 27, 2017). They promise 3 rates (12%, 25% ...

Tax roundup: Lies, lies, and more lies http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/tax-roundup-lies-lies-and-more-lies/ First, here's a rough typology of the lies upon which the sales job for the Republicans' wasteful, regressive tax cut is based. The tax cut won't help the rich. 1a. It won't help Trump. The tax cut will generate enough growth to pay for itself. 2a. Sec'y Mnuchin's now going beyond this,  claiming  that it will raise  more  revenue than it loses. (Here's what I think's going  on there .) Most of the benefits of the tax cut will go to the middle class. Lies, lies, lies. And while it's early days, and much could change, My impression is that a lot of people outside of DC Republicans aren't buying them. The media and the Twitterverse is especially lit up with lies #1 and #2. In fact, here's the NYT doing some  calculations  on lie 1b ( "Trump could save more than $1 billion under his new tax plan" ; that's mostly due to eliminat...

Janus is the latest attack on workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively http://www.epi.org/blog/janus-is-the-latest-attack-on-workers-rights-to-organize-and-bargain-collectively/  -- via my feedly new Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear  Janus v. AFSCME , a case that could profoundly affect the ability of public-sector workers to improve their wages and working conditions. The case threatens the right of the majority of workers, through their democratically elected union, to bargain a contract with their public employer that requires every employee covered by the contract to pay their fair share of the costs of negotiating it, administering it, and enforcing it. The Court decided this issue forty years ago in  Abood v. Detroit Board of Education  and it has been the law of the land since. Janus  is nothing more than the latest attack on workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively. The Court considered this issue last term in  Friedrichs...

North Korea and Yemen — the Costs of Empire http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/north-korea-and-yemen-the-costs-of-empire Mark Weisbrot US News and World Report, September 28, 2017 HuffPost, September 28, 2017 See article on original site As the war of words between the governments of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un has spiraled into child-like name calling and escalating military threats, the world shudders at the possible consequences. The Pentagon has reportedly estimated that a North Korean attack with conventional weapons against the South would kill 20,000 people a day; but deaths could reach the millions in the event of a nuclear war. Meanwhile, in Yemen, the US is already participating militarily in what humanitarian aid groups have  labe led  crimes against humanity. US military forces are participating in refueling Saudi bombers and also in their  targeting , which has killed  thousands  of civilians. By cutting off food imports, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen's...

John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Enlighten Radio Podcasts Post: Podcast: The Moose Turd Cafe: -- Puerto Rico: Homicidal Neglect/ Or Genocidal? Link: http://podcasts.enlightenradio.org/2017/09/podcast-moose-turd-cafe-puerto-rico.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

John Case has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: Enlighten Radio Podcasts Post: Podcast: Resistance Radio: Driving nails in the Coffin of Trumpcare Link: http://podcasts.enlightenradio.org/2017/09/podcast-resistance-radio-driving-nails.html -- Powered by Blogger https://www.blogger.com/

Trump Gives Tax Cuts to Rich and Fairy Tales to Everyone Else http://prospect.org/article/trump-gives-tax-cuts-rich-and-fairy-tales-everyone-else (Photo: AP/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, in Washington. trickle-downers_35.jpg A fter toiling away for months, the so-called "Big Six" gang of Republican architects have finally unveiled their initial tax proposal, with the feel-good slogan "More Jobs, Fairer Taxes, Bigger Paychecks." Despite all the political spin in recent weeks from Trump and his lieutenants about how the plan  won't  be a big giveaway for the rich (and might even raise their taxes!) and  will  be a boon for the middle class, the proof is in the paper. As expected, the  details of the plan  show a proposal that was explicitly written for the rich , with provisions aimed at easing the tax burden of the wealthiest Americans. And for...

Trump could help Puerto Rico with the stroke of a pen. Why hasn't he? http://larrysummers.com/2017/09/28/trump-could-help-puerto-rico-with-the-stroke-of-a-pen-why-hasnt-he/ My modestly-informed guess is that Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico will appear in history textbooks right next to Katrina and New Orleans. Puerto Rico's unique territorial status and institutional constraints make the federal government's response very difficult. And as I shall suggest in a subsequent post, the hurricane has greatly exacerbated Puerto Rico's  profound debt burden  and development challenges. Yet one has to wonder why we are fanning the flames. At present, Puerto Rico is desperate for inputs — tools to fix generators so that electricity can be restored, supplies to purify water and avoid cholera, materials to buttress its damaged, crumbling infrastructure, and provisions to feed its population. And as an island, most of what it needs arrives by sea. One would imagine at a moment like ...