Author Archives: Chris
Happy Tax Day
Okay, it’s not quite Tax Day yet but if I don’t post this now then I’m likely to forget.
John Scalzi in 2010, Tax Frenzies and How to Hose Them Down:
A question in e-mail based on all the recent “rich people feeling not rich” nonsense, and the associated commentary online:
Why is it that the people freaking out the most about taxes on the rich are the ones who don’t seem to know how the tax code works?
The answer is in the question: Because they don’t know how the tax code works. The major failing seems to be an incomprehension regarding marginal tax rates, but people also seem to fall down on the matter of taxable income vs. gross income (i.e. how deductions can work for you!), how to apply tax credits, and other various and fairly basic aspects of the tax code here in the US.
If you don’t know that stuff — if you basically wander through your life thinking the government taxes all of your income based on the highest possible percentage — then I suppose it’s no wonder you freak out. But it also kind of makes you the financial equivalent of the people who think that Darwin said we are all descended from monkeys, or that the Bible says “God helps those who help themselves.” In short, it means you’re a bit ignorant. You should stop being that. It’s easily correctable. In any event, at some point in time, real live grown-ups should understand the concept of marginal rates. It’s not that difficult to grasp.
Weekly Digest – April 10, 2016
Must Read/Listen
- Andrew Bacevich, Presidential Wars
- Andrew Bacevich interviewed on WBUR’s On Point, America’s Long War In The Middle East
Should Read
- Peter Eavis (NYT), Yes, Bernie Sanders Knows Something About Breaking Up Banks
- Mike Konczal, Bernie Versus the Banks
- Cathy O’Neil, There are lots of ways to break up the big banks
- Trump’s debt proposal is a mix of conventional and unconventional stupidity
- Mike the Mad Biologist, The Freakout We’re Witnessing Is New Democrats Realizing They Have To Negotiate With The Left
- Corey Robin, What’s going to happen to liberals when the Right begins to give way?
Note to Paul Krugman
Note to Paul Krugman, “We’re comin’ fer ya, motherfucker! [maniacal laughter]”
From The Atlantic:
Sanders had the support of 47 percent of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters while Clinton had 46 percent—a narrow gap that fell within the poll’s 2.5 percent margin of error. The national survey was conducted in the days before the Vermont senator handily defeated the former secretary of state in the Wisconsin primary, and it tracks other polls in the last week that found Sanders erasing Clinton’s edge across the country. In a poll that PRRI conducted in January, Clinton had a 20-point lead.
Musical accompaniment for Krugman’s column:
Music for Wednesday night
Weekly Digest – April 3, 2016
Must Read
- Corey Robin, What Donald Trump Can Learn From Frederick Douglass [Ed.: Read Robin’s piece then read the transcript of this interview on NPR]
- Robert Kuttner, The Other Woman: Elizabeth Warren and the 2016 Election
- David Glasner, What’s so Great about Free Trade?
Should Read
- Corey Robin, The arc of neoliberalism is long, but it bends toward the rich
- Ari Berman,There Were 5-Hour Lines to Vote in Arizona Because the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act
- MediaStorm, Farming in an Age of Drought
- Lisa Krieger, Stormwater floods Modesto almond orchard in experiment to restore aquifer
- Ross Andersen, The World’s Most Urgent Science Project
- Dr. Michael Rich, Saving Prouty [Garden] Means Saving Children’s Lives
Music for Saturday night
Thought for the Day: April 2, 2016
Some people think that the money Clinton accepted from Goldman in speaking fees doesn’t mean that she’s in the tank for Goldman or the financial industry in general. That’s nothing, I can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger.
Obama by the numbers
Commenter Paul from Long Island in response to a Krugman column:
Obama by the numbers;
1. Jobs created: 9 million
2. Unemployment rate: 5 percent down from a high of 10 percent in first year
3. Increase in national debt due to his policies: $983 billion
4. Decrease in deficit: $492 billion from $1.4 trillion
5. Corporate profits: up 166 percent
6. U.S. Iraq military deaths: 128 down from 3401
7. U.S. Afghanistan military deaths: over 1000 up from 575
8. Number of bankers jailed: 0
9. Number of torturers jailed: 0
10. Number of whistle blowers jailed: 2 (Manning, Kiriakou)
11. Climate accord: 1 (Paris)
12. Nuclear non-proliferation: 1 (Iran)
13. Uninsured rate in health care: 9.2 percent down from15.7 percent
14. Trade: 2 (Trans-Pacific partnership, Cuba)
Additions to the list?
