U.S. Economy
Ignoring the tax gap
We're not Greece but the IRS could do a better job
Topics: U.S. Economy
![Ignoring the tax gap Ignoring the tax gap](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/06/money-460x307.jpg)
People who a) want to scare you and b) don’t know what they’re talking about, like to say “We’re becoming like Greece!” The fear mongering is supposed to get you all wound up about the debt so you’ll be primed to go austere (since that’s working out so well for the Greeks, the Spanish, etc.).
The comparison makes no sense—just look at the bond yields (ours very low, theirs very high) and you’ll see my point. And one salient difference is that we collect our taxes.
But while we’re worlds ahead of Greece in this regard, this piece by Bloomberg journalist Jesse Drucker made me wonder if we’re not trying to emulate this aspect of the Greek tragedy on the US stage. The piece tells a detailed and fascinating, if depressing, story about how weakly the IRS follows up on referrals of tax avoidance from whistleblowers.
Continue Reading CloseJared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a Senior Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Follow his work via Twitter at @econjared and st @centeronbudget. More Jared Bernstein.
Dimon in the rough
How Wall Street aims to keep regulators out of its global betting parlor
Topics: U.S. Economy
![Dimon in the rough Dimon in the rough](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/06/dimon-congress.jpeg-460x307.jpg)
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main regular of derivatives (bets on bets), wants to extend Dodd-Frank regulations to the foreign branches and subsidiaries of Wall Street banks.
Horror of horrors, say the banks.
“If JPMorgan overseas operates under different rules than our foreign competitors,” warned Jamie Dimon, chair and CEO of JP Morgan, Wall Street would lose financial business to the banks of nations with fewer regulations, allowing “Deutsche Bank to make the better deal.”
Continue Reading CloseRobert Reich, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written 13 books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org. More Robert Reich.
Why the GOP worries about corporate feelings
Topics: U.S. Economy
![Why the GOP worries about corporate feelings Why the GOP worries about corporate feelings](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/06/apple-conference.jpeg1-460x307.jpg)
Perhaps you’d expect no more from the Republican leader of the Senate who proclaimed three years ago that the GOP’s first priority was to get Obama out of the White House. But Senator Mitch McConnell’s speech Friday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington is simply bonkers.
The only reason I bring it up is because it offers an inside look at how the Republican goal of getting rid of Obama is inextricably linked to the Republican Supreme Court’s decision equating corporations with people under the First Amendment, and to the Republican’s current determination to keep Americans in the dark about which corporations contribute what.
Continue Reading CloseRobert Reich, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written 13 books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org. More Robert Reich.
From the papers
Greece, the fiscal cliff and healthcare reform
Topics: U.S. Economy
![From the papers From the papers](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/05/greece-parliament-460x307.jpg)
First, Greece. The “pro-bailout” New Democracy party won a plurality of the vote in the Greek election and will now try to form a governing coalition that will try to keep the troubled nation in the Eurozone. But I suspect most folks paying attention to this are wondering two things: 1) what really changes? And 2) what does this mean for the U.S.?
Re 1, probably not much but that’s to be seen. They’ll be a short relief rally in markets by those worried that a leftist victory would have heightened the prospect of a disorderly Greek exit from the zone (a friend and I wondered if the rally would last a whole session or half a session). But the thing to watch here is less the Greeks and more the European economic authorities, including the ECB, IMF and the German government.
Continue Reading CloseJared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a Senior Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Follow his work via Twitter at @econjared and st @centeronbudget. More Jared Bernstein.
Can’t a capitalist be moral?
As a business school professor, I've noticed a shortage of ethics in my field. It's time to do more
Topics: Education, U.S. Economy
![Can't a capitalist be moral? Can't a capitalist be moral?](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/06/chalkboard_rect-460x307.jpg)
At the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where I teach, students don’t just register for classes — they bid for them. True to market principles, Chicago Booth organized this system to maximize student satisfaction. By creating a market in which students compete for the opportunity to take classes with the professors they like best, Chicago Booth ensures the class assignments that maximize students’ desires.
To function properly, this market, like all markets, requires not only official rules but social norms as well. For evidence of the importance of social norms, consider a problem we encountered with the bidding system. The system gives each student a fixed number of bidding points at the beginning of his two-year program. Students can then use these points to bid for the courses they like. The “cost” of a given course is set by the number of students bidding for it and how many points they bid: less popular courses go for zero points, while more popular ones require students to dip into their precious points. When the demand for a course exceeds the supply, only the students who made the highest bids get to take the class. Each quarter features three rounds of bidding; after each round, students who win spots in a class can, if they like, give those spots to other students in exchange for points.
Continue Reading CloseLuigi Zingales, the Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and the David G. Booth Faculty Fellow at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, has been involved in developing the best interventions to cope with the aftermath of the financial crisis. His research has earned him the 2003 Bernácer Prize for the best young European financial economist, the 2002 Nasdaq award for best paper in capital formation, and a National Science Foundation Grant in economics. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance and the American Economic Review. He lives in Chicago. More Luigi Zingales.
Obama’s Fannie Mae failure
Housing is still a huge economic problem, and the president is at odds with Fannie Mae over how to fix it
Topics: Barack Obama, Housing, U.S. Economy
![Obama's Fannie Mae failure Obama's Fannie Mae failure](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/06/fannie_mae_rect-460x307.jpg)
Amid all the rhetoric and posturing that have accompanied every twist and turn of the great housing bust and the ensuing slow, stuttering recovery of the United States economy, a comment made last week by new Fannie Mae CEO Tim Mayopoulos to the Wall Street Journal might have seemed consequential only to the most wired-in housing wonk. ”From my perspective, I don’t believe we need principal reduction to modify loans and make [modifications] work for homeowners,” Mr. Mayopoulos said.
Continue Reading Close![Andrew Leonard Andrew Leonard](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120620233036im_/http://media.salon.com/2012/04/AndrewLeonard_Bio.jpg)
Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.
Page 1 of 22 in U.S. Economy