Perhaps for the first time in living memory, if not ever, the outgoing Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen expressed concern about the size of the U.S. national debt. CNBC‘s Jeff Cox has the story: With Congress wrestling over a tax reform plan that critics say would explode the government budget deficit, Federal…
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Amazon made its reputation as the world’s largest online retailer by making it possible for anyone anywhere to buy consumer products. But has anybody considered what the company itself is capable of buying when it becomes the consumer? In September 2017, Amazon announced that it was seeking to establish a second headquarters in the…
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The California Supreme Court has ruled that the state can impose a contract on employers, in the style of Don Corleone, a deal they can’t refuse. News stories hailed the unanimous ruling as a victory for “farmworkers” but it isn’t. The case deals with Gerawan Farming, a fruit grower in Fresno and Madera counties….
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President Trump has tapped Mick Mulvaney head of the Office of Management and Budget, to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a bad sign for a number of reasons. As we noted back in 2012 in Financial Crisis and Leviathan, the CFPB was created during the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, not…
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Gene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute who specializes in national debt and tax policy matters, was among 40 notable individuals asked to respond to the question “Has the world been fitted with a debt straightjacket?” by the publishers of The International Economy last spring. His response provided the following gem that summarizes…
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Among U.S. states, Connecticut competes with Illinois for the title of being the most fiscally distressed as a result of the policies its politicians have implemented over the years, where the two states frequently trade off between each other for being in the worst shape. This fall, both states showed some progress toward resolving…
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Charles Manson has died of natural causes at the age of 83, and those unfamiliar with the fellow should read Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent Bugliosi. In Los Angeles in 1969, Manson plotted a series of savage killings that were not entirely random. By having his followers scrawl…
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Since 1995, the U.S. Congress has given the most badly behaving of its members and its employees an unusual, secret taxpayer-funded perk. Writing at The Hill, Jennie Beth Martin explains how a law, the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA), that was meant to compel members of the U.S. Congress to live under the terms of…
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Two days ago, the news recently broke that the nation of Venezuela officially defaulted on its debt. Writing at Forbes, Frances Coppola reports on the straw that broke the camel’s back for what had been one of the richest nations in South America. Venezuela has defaulted on two of its US dollar-denominated sovereign bond…
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The United States Postal Service is reporting losses of $2.7 billion for the past fiscal year, USA Today reports, less than the $5.6 billion from the previous year but still the eleventh straight year the USPS has been a loser for taxpayers. Increases in package delivery failed to offset the drop in regular mail,…
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