Our Spiraling Welfare Spending - 10/29/12
Federal welfare spending is now approaching the $1 trillion mark. We’re talking about more than 80 means-tested programs, comprising a maze of forms, bureaucrats and regulations. More |
Unemployment and Tepid Recovery - 10/29/12
 | The chart above shows how different this recession has been from other recent recessions: at the peak, the percentage of the labor force receiving unemployment compensation was 67% more than at the peak of the 1981-82 recession. This goes a long way to explaining why this recovery has been so tepid. More |
Aging Taxpayers - 10/29/12
 | Nearly half of all taxpayers are over 45, compared to 39 percent in 1997. More |
Dividend Cliff - 10/26/12
 | That looming tax hike for dividends represents a huge incentive for shareholders to push the companies whose stock they own to increase the amount of cash dividends they pay out this year, and perhaps even to pull ahead dividends currently planned to be paid in 2013 by the end of 2012 instead. More |
Insolvent States - 10/25/12
 | The State Budget Crisis Commission issued a new report on Illinois in which it chronicles the long descent of the state into fiscal chaos. Illinois has used so many gimmicks to push off its problems over the years that even before the financial crisis hit, the state was essentially insolvent. How many other states are in the same predicament? More |
Gas Prices and Lifestyle - 10/25/12
 | How people say they will change their activities if gas prices rise. More |
More Oil Than Saudi Arabia - 10/25/12
 | U.S. oil output is surging so fast that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer. More |
Medicare Debate: What's At Stake - 10/23/12
 | Virtually every economic policy choice has winners and losers. The Affordable Care Act makes a clear value judgment: it subordinates the interests of Medicare beneficiaries to those who would benefit from the AC'S subsidized coverage expansion. More |
Business Friendlier Conditions - 10/23/12
 | Business conditions have improved almost everywhere in the past few years. The International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank) has been compiling rankings of the ease of doing business in countries around the world since 2003. A key component of the measure involves the setting up of a fantasy company in each jurisdiction and working out how long it takes to become incorporated, pay taxes and so on. More |
State/Local Tax Burdens - 10/23/12
 | In 2010, residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut paid the highest state-local tax burdens in the country.
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