Conor Clarke

Gaah. In the face of criticism, the Obama administration is considering scrapping its plan to cap itemized deductions for charitable contributions from wealthy taxpayers. Since I have already declared my hatred for both wealthy taxpayers and charity, most of this will be self plagiarism. But let's try again: More »

There has been some good back and forth in the comments over the ABC News article and the follow-up. It's made me think a lot more about taxes and, in particular, something Chait wrote in his original criticism of the ABC piece:Obama is not proposing a tax system whereby somebody who goes from $249,999 to $250,000 suddenly becomes poorer. Nobody has ever enacted a tax hike like that in the history of the United States.Are there really no examples of tax hikes like… More »

Yesterday ABC News published a story suggesting that some taxpayers are intentionally reducing their incomes to avoid a higher tax bracket and thus save money. And sure, perhaps some taxpayers are in fact pursuing this plan. But the plan is based on a premise that is obviously and embarrassingly incorrect. Because tax rates are marginal, falling into a lower bracket can't save you money. The most it can save you is time. Jon Chait pointed this out and many others… More »

Justin Fox and Kevin Gallagher have both done breakdowns of the global stimulus effort by nation. The most striking thing, as Justin notes, is the wide variation: the plans vary from about 7% of GDP (China) to .3% (Italy). There is clearly a coordination problem here; Justin says that most of the developed world is not doing its part.Indeed, some of the developed world is actively undermining any kind of coordinated global stimulus. Ireland, for example, is… More »

Jon Chait and Kevin Drum have already piled on, but this report from ABC News seems worthy of special opprobrium. The article documents actual, breathing, real-life rich individuals who plan on reducing their income to less than $250,000 in an attempt to avoid Obama's proposed tax increases on those making more than $250,000. A representative quote from one of these conniving rascals: "We are going to try to figure out how to make our income $249,999.00." [...]… More »

According to recovery.gov stimulus timeline, March 3 is the day federal agencies are supposed to begin reporting on their use of the stimulus funds. It will be interesting to see what (or if) new material appears on the website. More »

Earlier today I wrote a post about the long-run macroeconomic implications of the stimulus, and now the CBO has gone and issued a new macroeconomic analysis (pdf). Fortunately, the results -- a nice bump up in GDP in the short run followed by a small bump down in the long run -- remain the same. (Barring any newly discovered failures in logic, I hope my point does, too.)But the new CBO analysis has something the old one didn't: a ranking of the multipliers on each… More »

The publishing industry has suffered a lot in this recession, but it has enough life to extend a six-figure book contract Rod Blagojevich. The deal is with an independent publisher called Phoenix, which seems like a nice metaphor for what Blago probably wants to be."The governor chose to go with a large independent company because he wanted to tell his story without any restrictions over content that might've come with a major publishing house," says the former… More »

The publishing industry has suffered a lot in this recession, but it has enough life to extend a six-figure book contract Rod Blagojevich. The deal is with an independent publisher called Phoenix, which seems like a nice metaphor for what Blago probably wants to be."The governor chose to go with a large independent company because he wanted to tell his story without any restrictions over content that might've come with a major publishing house," says the former… More »

The non-profit groups criticizing the administration's plan to cap charitable tax deductions seem to think so. Under the current law you can obtain an income-tax deduction for a charitable donation. Obama wants to limit that deduction to those at or below the 28% income tax rate. In other words, if you are in the 33 or 35% tax bracket, you will only be able to deduct 28% of a gift. Non-profits say this is a bad idea because it "will be a blow to organizations… More »

E.J. Dionne has a column that gives me a chance to sound off on something I've been wondering about:The central issue in American politics now is whether the country should reverse a three-decade-long trend of rising inequality in incomes and wealth.[...] Do we want to be a moderately more equal country or not? This is the question Obama has put before the nation. Let's debate it without the distracting rhetorical sideshows designed to obscure the stakes in the… More »

Not really. But at least Obama wants to start. Here's the relevant portion from his budget summary:As part of an effort to transition large farms from direct payments provided to owners of base acres to increased income from revenue derived from emerging markets for environmental services, the President's Budget phases out direct payments over three years to farmers with sales revenue of more than $500,000 annually. Presently, direct payments are made to even large… More »

I thought it did, based on the evidence here. Now Matthew Shapiro and Joel Slemrod have a new paper that says it didn't. From the NBER digest abstract:[...]Only one-fifth of the survey respondents said that the 2008 tax rebates would lead them to mostly increase spending. Most respondents said they would either mostly save the rebate or mostly use it to pay off debt. The most common plan for the rebate was debt repayment.[...]Because of the low spending propensity,… More »

I see Joe the Plumber has some harsh words for his one-time sponsor, John McCain:"He doesn't care about what's best for America," Wurzelbacher said. "He only cares about what's best for John McCain." More wisdom from Wurzelbacher here. More »

Director Peter Orszag's first post is here, RSS feed is here. I must say that it's not quite as elegant and simple as the CBO's blog, but it's nice to have. More »

Here (or after the jump) is the part of the administration's budget summary relevant to financial stabilization, which fleshes out the AP story that Marc noted earlier: More »

From the administration's summary (pdf):The scope, complexity, and sheer magnitude of the international financial system pose significant enforcement challenges for the IRS in carrying out its tax administration responsibilities. The 2010 Budget includes funding for a robust portfolio of IRS international tax compliance initiatives...Significant enforcement challenges indeed! More »

From the administration's summary (pdf):The scope, complexity, and sheer magnitude of the international financial system pose significant enforcement challenges for the IRS in carrying out its tax administration responsibilities. The 2010 Budget includes funding for a robust portfolio of IRS international tax compliance initiatives...Significant enforcement challenges indeed! More »

Barack Obama has repeatedly promised to hold accountable the local officials in charge of spending stimulus dollars. And I see that Joe Biden has now promised "to embarrass them into doing what they are supposed to do." And sure, shame seems like a reasonably strong motivation. But is that all the administration has? (And how does it work? Are the offenders names and faces posted on recovery.gov?) Or is there some other mechanism by which the administration can… More »

Two of Obama's claims from the SOTU:We invented solar technology, but we've fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it.and.I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.  After a period of prolonged study and meditation (ie, I consulted Wikipedia for 45 minutes after the speech), I have concluded that these claims are questionable at best and false at worst. Not quite sixteen words,… More »