Mike & Co. — The operative question on the Hill right now is, when will we get out of here? The simple answer is that Congress will adjourn as soon as logistically possible the minute after the budget stop-gap measure — aka Continuing Resolution (aka CR) — has been adopted by both Houses. Bet on …
Mike & Co. — As the candidates refine their policy positions, think tanks, bloggers, journalists, and pundits try to make sense of it all for us. Sometimes there is spin, intentionally and unintentionally, as mistakes or misconceptions get amplified in the media echo chamber. So it matters who is publishing the report or the poll …
Mike & Co. — Practically every member of Congress running for re-election wants to be with the voters, not with each other with Election Day less than 50 days away. Only one thing stands between them and adjournment right now — adoption of a budget for Fiscal Year 2017, which begins in ten days. No one …
Mike & Co. — In a speech before the Economic Club of New York yesterday, Trump laid out a passably detailed economic plan. Some of the speech provides marginally clearer outlines of previously stated tax policy. The rest of it walks back the most egregious and heavily criticized aspects of his las major economic policy address …
Trump Urges Yuge Tax Cuts and New Debt (Sep. 16) Read More »
Mike & Co. — Congress is back in session now for the balance of September, with the priority items on its agenda and likely outcomes regarding leading legislation in the area of fiscal and financial regulatory policy already clarifying. Below, we review the highest priority bills and their probable disposition, from the must-pass pieces, …
Mike & Co. – Over the last 48 hours, Donald Trump has elaborated on his immigration policy, noting that while many illegal immigrants would be deported, those not deported would instead pay “back taxes.” While widely reported as a “softening” of his traditional rhetoric, these new details raise serious questions about how tax delinquency could be used as a legal …
Alt-Right/Trump and Immigration: the Price of Protection (Aug. 25) Read More »
Mike & Co. — Yesterday when HRC released her detailed agenda for promoting and facilitating small businesses, she called the plan an outgrowth of HRC’s numerous conversations with small business owners over the past several months. From the beginning, HRC has said she wants to be the “Small Business President.” Recently citing her father’s experience …
Mike & Co. Usually, the annual Jackson Hole, WY economic summit, a Davos for central bankers, focuses on examinations and assessments of monetary policy. And there will be plenty of that this week. But this year, institutional introspection will be prominent on the agenda. The Federal Reserve has been under increasing pressure regarding governance …
Mike & Co., As Donald Trump continues the drawn-out process of providing details of his tax agenda, it has become abundantly clear that his plan stands to benefit the rich at the expense of lower- and middle-class Americans. Even more audacious — he appears to be running with three Achilles heels: the Trump loophole, whereby pass-through …
Mike & Co., With the President on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and Members of Congress back in their respective states and districts, the relative silence in Washington was barely broken yesterday when the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. The Committee showed divisions over whether to increase interest rates in …
