What would you do if the price of your favorite beer rose by 24 percent? Would you buy less of that beer? Would you consider buying some other brand of beer instead? |
There are few notions less constructive than that the only way to a middle class life is college. |
Wal-Mart is particularly vulnerable to tax-induced woes – perhaps surprisingly so for a company known for “everyday low prices” that might appeal to consumers who “trade down” when money is tight. |
Contemporary capitalist polities need to accept that inequality and insecurity will continue to be the inevitable result of market operations and find ways to shield citizens from their consequences -- while somehow still preserving the dynamism that produces capitalism's vast economic and cultural benefits in the first place. More |
The Obama administration has said that Medicaid is “walled off” from deficit and debt negotiations with Republicans. Ironically, as recently as in his 2012 budget proposal, the president recommended a few sensible Medicaid reforms of his own. Why the change? More |
The factors underlying the gender gap in pay primarily reflect choices made by men and women, given their different roles in the family, rather than labor market discrimination against women due to their sex. |
One of the annoying anomalies about government services in California is that while we carry one of the nation's highest state and local tax burdens – over 10 percent of personal income – we consistently rank very low in what those many billions of tax dollars provide. More |
Why is it that government officials seem inspired to reach the heights of creativity coming up with new taxes? Who knows. But their efforts could mean you’ll be paying new taxes on everything from bicycles to bowling, 2-by-4s to marijuana. |
The great appeal of raising the minimum wage is that it appears to reduce inequality without increasing budget deficits. That seductive glimmer is the policy’s greatest flaw. More |
It's become common in class action lawsuits for the lawyers to win the lion's share of the award as fees, leaving little for class members. More |
Californians seem responsive to Texas’ low tax message, especially since the most recent state election in November, when income and sales taxes increases were approved by California’s voters in a measure called Proposition 30. More |
The race for... More |
In his State of the City speech last week, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he wants to add 10,000 new electric-vehicle charging stations over the next seven years. To that end, he wants the City Council to amend building codes so that 20 percent of all new parking spaces must be “wired and ready for electric vehicles.” The city can be as “wired and ready” as Bloomberg likes, but he can’t make... More |
There is a ast track to more jobs and wealth through expanded trade with just two countries, our neighbors Canada and Mexico. But there wasn’t a single mention of Canada in the SOTU speech. Mexico got one brief nod, in the context of Ford returning jobs to America from Mexico. More |
The more individualized attention a problem calls for, the less well-suited government is to dealing with it—and the more likely independent, charitably-supported groups are. By that standard, government has been over-reaching—with poor results to show—and would do better to narrow its efforts. More |
President Obama presents American history as a “journey,” during which, at every crucial turn, we discovered “together” that “preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.” His examples include efforts led by the federal government: interstate highways, financial regulation, the New Deal-Great Society safety net and victory in war. His gist is that large numbers of... More |
Spiraling, indeed unsustainable, costs are not the only ominous reality facing the higher educational establishment. There is also the softening of other sources of revenue, from private philanthropy to subsidies from the public coffers. No one believes that the strained economic environment that precipitated this retrenchment is going away anytime soon. More |
When the market stumbles, though — or when it's tripped up by unwise government interventions — a great clamor is heard. Unemployment rises, stock prices and exchange rates plummet, and tales abound of this hardship and that lost dream. Pundits proclaim loudly that the unreliable market must be “corrected” or “tamed” by the wisdom and prudence of politicians.But... More |
Done right, taxing services is no revenue grab, but a way to create fairer, more efficient, and more modern state tax codes and finance massive cuts to tax rates. |
The new program for citizenship in the United Kingdom includes equipping all pupils "with the financial skills to enable them to manage their money on a day-to-day basis as well as to plan for future financial needs." More |
If the payroll tax cut of two years ago wasn’t necessary, it’s a far worse idea to take it away. It’s not just the pure economics of it. Economics, of course, would already tell you that if the payroll tax did help the economy, even a little, it’s going to hurt the economy to take it away. More |
Texan job creation has far outpaced the national average, and that includes high-paying new jobs. The number of jobs in Texas has grown by a truly impressive 31.5 percent since 1995, compared with just 12 percent nationwide, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data (see Figure One). Texas has also lapped California, an important economic rival and the only state with a larger population. More |
Education is important and necessary for a host of reasons. But there's little evidence it drives growth. More |
Europe’s use of the fossil fuel spiked last year after a long decline, powered by a surge of cheap U.S. coal on global markets and by the unintended consequences of ambitious climate policies that capped emissions and reduced reliance on nuclear energy. By contrast, in the United States, natural gas is now frequently less expensive than coal for power, so demand for the hard, black fuel has plummeted. More |
The federal government’s relentless expansion has made Washington, D.C., America’s real Second City. More |
Just six years since the last housing bubble, California is blowing up another. This may seem like good news to homeowners and speculators alike but it could further accelerate the demise of the state's middle class and push more businesses out of the state. More |
Edward Koch’s upset victory in the 1977 mayoral race in New York was the desperate act of a city whose progressive dreams had been mauled by near bankruptcy, a chaotic blackout and a high murder rate. Despite 35 years of subsequent success, for which Koch deserves some credit, the city should not take for granted the tough, sensible centrism that Koch brought to City Hall. More |
Almost every federal program has a vocal cheering section, which makes it difficult to cut anything. More |
Before considering whether to cover workers under Obamacare, company leaders say they need to know more about how the state insurance exchanges would work and how any decision they do make would affect their workers. |
Mayor Ed Koch, who died today, described himself as a "liberal with sanity." His practical progressivism saved Gotham’s finances and restored its spirit. More |
Ordering public sector pension funds to divest gun stocks carries a powerful emotional appeal in the wake of the Newtown murders. And on a gut level, that might seem to make sense. But there are strong arguments not to use public pension plans to accomplish public policy goals. Divestiture will have no impact on the targeted companies and will create risks for already vulnerable plans. More |
More and more Americans find themselves in something not well noticed but potentially more disruptive–a share economy , where asset owners use digital clearinghouses to capitalize the unused capacity of things they already have, and consumers rent from their peers rather than rent or buy from a company. More |