Update 210: Search for Revenue Leads Overseas; State of Play on International Tax Reform Debate Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on International Tax Reform. It was the first Finance Committee hearing after the announcement of the Big Six tax framework last week. What do we know about the state of play on …
Update 209 — FSOC’s De-Designation Decision: AIG De-Listing Leaves Only One Nonbank SIFI The Update takes its own “tax holiday” to look at last Friday’s Financial Stability Oversight Counsel under-the-radar vote to de-designate AIG as a Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI) and the rationales provided by seven of the ten FSOC members. The council’s 68-page …
Update 208 – GOP Puts Tax Outline on Table; Many Details and Months of Debate to Follow Yesterday, after several false starts and months of manufactured distractions, GOP leadership in Congress and the Trump Administration finally tabled a framework for a tax plan that would lower rates across the board and cost the nation billions of dollars, possibly …
Update 207: Corker-Toomey Resolution Deal A Big Under-the-Radar Boost for GOP Tax Plan On a busy week in Washington that ended early for the holidays for many, Sens. Corker and Toomey announced a “compromise” agreement on a Senate budget resolution with a top line $1.5 trillion in deficit spending over ten years, to …
Update 206 — On Monetary Policy, Much Ado; Rates Steady, But Yellen Says 4 Hikes in Queue In a press conference this afternoon, Federal Reserve Chair Yellen announced no surprises. The Fed will maintain a federal funds target rate of 1 to 1.25 percent. Yellen described inflation levels below the central bank’s two percent target. She …
Update 205 — Getting Down to Business Taxes Hatch Calls Audible: Will it be 51, 60, or Punt? This morning, Senate Finance held its second hearing exploring tax policy in a week. This time, the focus was on corporate tax. The Committee heard testimony on pass-through rates, C-corp rates, territoriality, options to raise revenue, etc. …
Update 204 — Sen. Finance Tax Reform Hearing: Hatching Bipartisan Possibilities or Pipe Dreams? Today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing on individual income taxes marked the first indication that we may be witnessing an administration-directed, or influenced, shift from partisanship to triangulation, this time on tax reform. The tectonic shift under the ground of American partisan politics was …
Update 203 — Median Income Hits New Record But… Who Has Seen the Wage Gains? The news out of the Census Bureau yesterday that median household income has reached record heights — $59K — following an average growth rate of more than four percent over 2015 and ’16 — was an unambiguously good and a …
Median Income Hits New Record But… Who Has Seen the Wage Gains? (Sep. 13) Read More »
Update 202 — Defusing a Fiscal Bomb The Debt Limit: Truce & Accountability Last Wednesday, at the same oval office meeting with Congressional leaders where the famous fiscal deal extending the debt ceiling deadline was struck, President Trump spontaneously floated the idea of eliminating the debt ceiling altogether. The idea hit a chord with Sen. Schumer and a …
Defusing a Fiscal Bomb The Debt Limit: Truce & Accountability (Sep. 11) Read More »
Update 201 • Fiscal Deal with Democrats? Now For Something Completely Different Donald Trump’s Flying Circus of an administration did something nooobody expected yesterday, all but pulling a legislative solution to some impending must-pass fiscal policy deadlines out of a hat. This was a new trick and it fooled almost everyone in Congress, most of all the …
