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 …
Update 200 — Post-Labor Day Disorder: Are Corporate Tax Cuts Good for Labor? This afternoon in Bismarck, North Dakota, exactly a week after a similar speech in Missouri, President Trump gave yet another pitch for the GOP’s forthcoming tax reform plan. Last week’s campaign-style rally had the added appeal for Trump that he could …
Update 199 — Trump’s Tax Speech: Are We Staring at a Vanishing Point? Donald Trump went to Springfield, MO yesterday to tout a putative tax plan — the one he expects Congress to deliver to his desk this fall. As usual, Trump provided almost no specifics but guaranteed the plan will produce the best …
Update 198 –- Musical Fed Board Chairs Post-Wyoming, All Over But the Yellen? Fed Chair Janet Yellen delivered remarks on the state of financial stability on Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the Fed’s renown annual economic policy symposium. Ten years after the onset of the Great Recession, the Chair took the opportunity to reflect on the impact of the Dodd-Frank …
Update 197 — HFSC’s Bipartisan Work: Summer Surprises that Threaten DFA? Before the quiet of recess settled into the Beltway, earlier this summer, the House Financial Services Committee’s GOP leadership opened up the first round of financial legislative debate with Jeb Hensarling’s Financial CHOICE Act. The CHOICE Act proposed large scale deconstruction of the policy …
