This has been a terrible few weeks for tax policy. Donald Trump declares himself “smart” for tax avoidance; leaked returns show him to have claimed almost a billion in losses, much of which stems from ways in which the code privileges those selling real estate, which he presumably has used to write off taxes owed… Read more
Archive for the ‘Deficits, Debt and Taxes’ Category
Is there a deficit of deficit hysteria?
I hope so, and it’s what I wrote about yesterday in the WaPo. Let me entertain OTEers with a few more thoughts on the topic, including feedback I got yesterday. One response was: “You’re endorsing fiscal recklessness! There’s nothing “progressive” going on here; it’s just politicians not giving a crap about our troubled fiscal accounts.”… Read more
It’s nerdy, but we’ve got to consider forecast errors in budget policy.
Over at WaPo. I wish every such budget forecast contained error bands like this. We can’t be reminded enough about the uncertainty inherent in such predictions. All of this also reminded me of the importance of that Jordan Ellenberg book I reviewed here, “How not to be wrong.”
Headline writers: enough already with the disembodied trillions!
President Obama’s 2017 budget is out today, and here’s why I think it’s worth a look. Yes, he’s approaching lame duck status and Congressional conservatives wouldn’t even use the thing for door stop. But I think it’s relevant in ways that you might find resonant, including vis-a-vis campaign politics. But what’s really working my last… Read more
Generational myth-busting, 101
This is why we all need to read Dean Baker’s Beat the Press column. This alarm bell–“the old are ripping off the young!”–goes off all too frequently. The answer is not, as such histrionics imply, to do less for the elderly, most of whom depend on Social Security and Medicare (Dean also makes the point… Read more