I generally agree with the argument laid down by Matthew Yglesias today about the Keystone XL project. On its face, picking one particular carbon energy project and trying to prevent it from being completed does not make a great deal of sense. Doing so does not actually reduce total carbon emissions, at least not in… Continue reading The tactics of Keystone XL protestors
One more swipe at flat tax advocates
Yesterday’s post about the strangeness of the flat tax position sparked a lot of conversation. I noticed some confusion here and there on what I was saying, so I thought a brief restatement might be helpful. The flat tax advocate usually talks about not wanting to make rich people pay more, or punish them for… Continue reading One more swipe at flat tax advocates
The totally baffling idea of a flat tax
Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Herman Cain have all put out a flat tax plan of one sort or another. If you want to see what this will mean for you, here are the savings you can expect organized by economic quintile: As you can see, if you are not rich, don’t expect much. But… Continue reading The totally baffling idea of a flat tax
Sears and the race to the bottom
The Atlantic Cities ran an interesting piece today about corporate relocation battles. The short of it is that states compete with one another to bring in specific corporations by giving away huge sums of public money. Right now, Ohio and Illinois are fighting over the Sears corporate headquarters, with both states offering around $400 million… Continue reading Sears and the race to the bottom
Worker-to-retiree ratio is meaningless for Social Security
For some reason, Social Security seems to get more spurious claims targeted at it than almost any other government program. Commentators mislead the public by calling it a Ponzi scheme, claiming it is insolvent, and strangely calling its treasury bond holdings worthless IOUs. These claims and many others made by the Social Security naysayers are… Continue reading Worker-to-retiree ratio is meaningless for Social Security