Tomorrow is the first Friday of the month — when unemployment numbers get released. This morning, Gallup released the results of its survey. It announced that, U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, was 7.8% for the month of November, up significantly from 7.0% for October. Gallup’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 8.3%, nearly a one-point increase over October’s rate. . The article | Read More »
Howard Dean wants your money. The only problem is — and this is initially going to seem like heresy from a progressive is — the truth is everybody needs to pay more taxes, not just the rich. And it’s a good start. But we’re not going to get out of this deficit problem unless we raise taxes across the board, to go back to what | Read More »
It is a national tragedy that people may be willing to put aside the issue of Social Security reform because Congressional Leaders on the Democrat side – such as Dick Durbin and Harry Reid – have been standing behind the position that Social Security is not a problem. While discussing the impending “fiscal cliff” negotiations last week, Harry Reid proclaimed (yet again), that “Social Security | Read More »
In an interview a week before Election Day, President Obama declared that if he won again, it would be a mandate for raising taxes on the highest income earners. Reviewing Election Day exit poll data, however, tells a different story. Looking at the voting patterns broken down by income earning amounts (based on 2011 total family income), there are only TWO categories out of six | Read More »
The IRS is reminding taxpayers and Congress alike that if the annual “AMT patch” isn’t renewed before the end of the year, millions of taxpayers (28 million) would be on the hook for thousands more per person in tax payments. But we need more than just a “patch”. We should strive to eliminate the AMT from the tax code. Here’s why: The Alternative Minimum Tax | Read More »
Class warfare proved to be the winner in this election cycle as it was a key component of Obama’s policies and re-election rhetoric. The components of such a tactic were easily recognized: 1) the political opponent (Romney) will hurt those among us who are most vulnerable (elderly, poor, etc); 2) the political opponent (Romney) does not care about the “middle class”; 3) the political opponent | Read More »
There was a recent media frenzy when Obama announced that General Colin Powell endorsed him for President. The NY Times helpfully noted that Mr. Powell said he supported Mr. Obama in part because he is ending the war in Afghanistan and has a strong counter-terrorism record. “There’s some very, very strong neo-conservative views that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with,” | Read More »
So, Mitt Romney released his 2011 taxes. And on cue, Think Progress rolls out this inane hit piece entitled “By Romney’s Own Standard, His Tax Returns Would Disqualify Him From The Presidency”. The summary of their argument accuses Romney of paying more than his fair share of taxes this year. This implies that he is somehow gaming the system or dishonest. However, this outrage — | Read More »
QE3 started this week — $40 billion a month for an unlimited amount of time. According to Bloomberg, Bernanke said, “We’re looking for ongoing, sustained improvement in the labor market,”. “There’s not a specific number we have in mind. What we’ve seen in the last six months isn’t it.” So here we have a Fed who is supposed to be independent. It’s clear instead that | Read More »
US Credit Downgraded again on QE3 move: From MarketWatch “SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Egan-Jones Ratings Co. said Friday it downgraded its U.S. sovereign rating to AA- from AA on concerns that the Fed’s new round of quantitative easing, or QE3, will hurt the U.S. economy. The ratings agency said the Fed’s plan of buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities a month and keeping interest rates | Read More »
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