The Obama Administration appears about to walk away from $7.5 billion in taxpayer money used to prop up Chrysler. This little information nugget was buried in Chrysler’s filing before the bankruptcy judge last week and confirmed by Administration sources. So much for responsible government and transparency! The Bush Administration pumped …
President Obama’s new corporate tax proposals cover two issues: tax evasion and tax punishment. He may have it half right. The tax evasion part is relatively easy. When U.S. taxpayers maintain foreign accounts with foreign financial institutions, Obama wants the financial institution to tell the Treasury about the accounts in …
Markets are weighed down by worries over the new swine flu and the ongoing stress flu; the former from Mexico, the latter from the Treasury Department. Recently, Treasury added markedly to market uncertainties by suggesting it would convert federal capital injections from preferred shares of banks to common shares. This …
• President Obama’s budget presented at the end of February painted a picture of a fiscal trainwreck. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today confirmed what many had suspected – the fiscal consequences of the President’s policies would be much worse. • The President is calling for massive tax increases equal …
In Thursday’s outraged House debate on the AIG bonuses, House Republicans rallied around a different approach. Members of both parties in the House and Senate have taken the tack of proposing to tax these bonuses through targeted, retroactive taxation. This is the substance of the bill that passed the House …
In his piece “International Cooperation is the Way Out of the Financial Crisis” Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2009, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling makes three recommendations, the first two of which are wrong-headed and the third threatens much the same. Mr. Darling observes correctly that we are …
The European Union (EU) is once again lecturing America on its economic policies, and thanks to President Obama’s policies and his allies in Congress, the EU is right and America is wrong. Europe, like the United States, is plunging into recession. France saw a stunning 13.8 percent decline in industrial …
Laura Tyson’s “In Defense of Obamanomics” in the Wall Street Journal Monday well portrayed the view of history and government from the classical American socialist perspective – more government is inherently better (except when it involves national defense), higher taxes are inherently better, especially when falling on the most productive, …
President Obama’s budget document lacks the details necessary to judge fully his tax proposals. What we have are proposed streams of revenues over 10 years and short tag lines describing the proposals. A full assessment of his tax program will therefore have to wait. The initial impression, however, is that …
The title to President Obama’s budget refers to a new era of responsibility. Responsible budgeting begins with credible economic forecasts. The Obama economic forecast doesn’t merely reflect the return of the famous Rosey Scenario, but puts Rosey in fantasyland. Don’t take my word for it, just look at the numbers …
