Taxes

Tax Priorities and Possibilities

Update 393 — Tax Priorities and Possibilities:Congress’ 2019 Tax Dash; Warren’s 2020 Plan  Today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a $20.5 trillion proposal consisting of revenue raisers to pay for her Medicare for All plan.  The comprehensive proposal would make substantial changes to an array of tax titles, ruling out a direct tax increase on the …

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Midsummer’s Budget Stunner

Update 368 — Midsummer’s Budget Stunner;Niche of Living Dead/Tax Extenders Near You A deal to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling is in sight. The Pelosi/Mnuchin agreement will raise fiscal year 2020 spending caps for defense and non defense discretionary, about $320 billion total. From here, appropriators have until September 30 to draft, …

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2020 Pres. Candidates Propose Bevy of Tax Credits

Update 361 — 2020 Pres. Candidates Propose Bevy of Tax Credits, But Are They Progressive? The 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are advancing a smorgasbord of tax credit proposals, mainly focused on augmenting existing tax credit programs, such as the earned income tax credit (EITC) and the child tax credit (CTC).  Tomorrow, House Ways & Means …

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O-Zone Program’s Protections Paltry

Update 348 — O-Zone Protections Paltry;Road for Investors, Public Still Perilous The Trump Administration’s putatively anti-poverty program known as the Opportunity Zone initiative seeks to promote economic investment in 8,700 distressed areas throughout the country.  It was passed into law as part of the Trump tax cut. Taxpayer money is put to use here as …

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Middle Class Cash & Credit Crunch (March 22)

Update 340: Middle Class Cash & Credit CrunchCase Studies, Problems and Policy Solutions The long-awaited, much discussed, often feared inversion of the yield curve — where long-term yields fall below short-term ones — occurred at about 1 pm ET this afternoon.  As we have discussed, this is a widely recognized harbinger of recession, news that …

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Fed Chair Powell Cites Concerns, Holds Rates in Place (February 28)

Update 334: Hitting Hill for Humphrey-Hawkins;Powell Cites Concerns, Holds Rates in Place This Tuesday and yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appeared before Senate and House Committees to report, as the Fed Chair does semi-annually, on the state of the economy and monetary policy.  In his July 2018 testimony, Chairman Powell painted a picture of …

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Bear or Bull Market: What’s the Beef? (January 11)

Update 322 — Bear or Bull: What’s the Beef? What Market Volatility Means for Real Economy Markets are notoriously difficult to read, let alone predict.  And market performance correlates to growth and other macroeconomic factors in an opaque way.  But the increasingly erratic capital markets are arresting attention and arousing concerns. Which of these real …

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