- Looking at the question of “who pays taxes?”: this just in from the facts department — it’s just flat out wrong to conflate “federal income taxes” with “taxes.”
- Breaking down the misguided nature of the makers vs. takers debate: it misses the dynamics of real lives in America, and in its place creates a false and divisive framework.
- Taking a broader view of the teachers’ strike in Chicago: if you think teachers unions are the reason too many kids aren’t learning enough, you’re wrong.
- Considering the housing market: new evidence on policy interventions and the cost of hitting bottom.
- Explaining that redistribution thingie: in a system like ours with so many tax and benefit cross-currents, there’s always a lot of redistributing going on — and it goes both ways.
- Pointing out the lack of evidence that lowering the top tax rates correlates with greater investment, savings, productivity, or income growth, with a tip of the hat to this blog by my CBPP colleague Chye-Ching Huang.
- Recapping an AEI debate on international trade policy, slides and all.
Music: this week’s Musical Interlude, featuring Doris Day.
Bonus: I wrote a haiku on makers and takers (in strict 5-7-5 format, of course).
It is impossible to understand the “makers” vs. “takers” thing if you don’t include the racist history of the meme.