 | Group most helped by 'fiscal cliff' deal: accountants Jan 4th 2013, 23:25 The legislation that edged our country away from the alleged "fiscal cliff" isn't named properly. Instead of calling it the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, Congress should have called it the Accountant Full Employment Act of 2012. That's because the legislation, which supposedly doesn't increase taxes for anyone other than "the rich" with adjusted gross incomes of $400,000 for a single filer and $450,000 for a married couple, made an already incomprehensible tax system even more incomprehensible. Read full article >>   | | What will Part Two of the fiscal cliff fight look like? Jan 4th 2013, 21:50 President Obama says he'll refuse to negotiate over the debt ceiling. But whether he likes it or not, he's going to be negotiating over a major budget agreement in two months' time: The debt ceiling will need to be raised just as the now-delayed sequester starts taking effect, right around March 1. Read full article >>   | | Yes, House Republicans supported the fiscal cliff deal Jan 4th 2013, 21:01 House Speaker John Boehner is taking a lot of heat for the fact that 151 House Republicans voted against the fiscal cliff deal while a mere 85 Republicans voted for it. That means he brought a deal to the floor that two-thirds of his members hated! It means he broke the Hastert rule, in which the speaker of the House brings bills to the floor only when a majority of his party's members support it! Read full article >>   | | Michael Castle: Unsuspecting godfather of the $1 trillion coin solution Jan 4th 2013, 18:05 The weirdest solution to the impending debt-ceiling crisis is finally having its day in the sun. As Brad Plumer explained last month, the Treasury secretary has the authority to mint platinum coins of any quantity and denomination. So, hypothetically, Tim Geithner could mint a $2 trillion coin, deposit it in the Treasury's account at the Federal Reserve, and use that money in lieu of additional borrowing. Suddenly, no one needs to worry if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Read full article >>   | | Graph of the day: 82 percent of the Bush tax cuts are here to stay Jan 4th 2013, 16:55 The fiscal cliff deal cast the vast majority of the Bush tax cuts into stone: Only the wealthiest 0.7 percent of taxpayers are affected by the rise in individual tax rates and the estate tax. They pay significantly more in taxes than the rest of the population: On average, their taxes will rise by $50,987 under the new deal. But, overall, only 18 percent of the revenue lost from the Bush tax cuts will be recovered under the deal, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Read full article >>   | | Google, competition and the one, perfect result Jan 4th 2013, 16:01 Gregory Ferenstein is a writer for TechCrunch. This piece reflects his opinion. In a 2005 interview, Eric Schmidt said that, ideally, a Google search should yield only a single, perfect result. "When you use Google, do you get more than one answer? Of course you do," he told public television host Charlie Rose at the time. "Well, that's a bug. We should be able to give you the right answer just once. We should know what you meant. You should look for information. We should get it exactly right." Read full article >>   | | The December jobs report proves the fiscal cliff deal a farce Jan 4th 2013, 15:35 Let's say I gave you three pieces of information about the U.S. economy. First, we have a terrible unemployment problem that's not solving itself anytime soon. Second, we're running big deficits that we expect will become unsustainable in the coming years, though there's no evidence that the market is even mildly concerned about them right now. Third, we can borrow for next to nothing because the world sees us as a rare safe harbor during a time of global economic turmoil. What sort of economic policy would you design? Read full article >>   | | Obama signs legislation to deliver more government contracts to small businesses Jan 4th 2013, 13:30 Washington's elected officials are taking new steps to direct more government work to small businesses, just as contractors are bracing for the threat of sequestration. President Obama on Tuesday signed as part of the military spending budget a series of provisions to help small firms compete for more federal contracts and ensure that agencies take their annual small business contracting goals more seriously. Most notably, the law requires that small business contracting performance be part of employee reviews for senior agency officials, which factor into their consideration for bonuses and promotions. Read full article >>   | |
No comments:
Post a Comment