Daily Archives: November 15, 2012

The Fiscal “Cliff” and the Real Problem

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Devin Smith | 17 comments

Like many others, I’m not worried about the so-called fiscal “cliff,” and the ravages to the economy that are likely to occur if Congress doesn’t do something about it before the end of the year. That’s because a lot of the impact can be cushioned in the short run by Executive Branch manipulations while negotiations continue to go on. But if measures aren’t taken to reverse the contractionary effect of the sequestration-induced changes, we’re looking at deficit cuts of $487 Billion over 9 months of the fiscal year. Continue reading →

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged bernie sanders, CBPP, debt-subject-to-the-limit, debt-to-GDP ratio, deficit, Economists for Peace and Security, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Sustainability, jamie galbraith, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, national debt, Robert Reich, Stephanie Kelton

Missing Link in Tax Overhaul

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Devin Smith | 41 comments

By J. D. Alt

In Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal (Capital Journal, Looking Past Fiscal Cliff to a Genuine Tax Overhaul) Gerald Seib lays out a very sensible argument about why the U.S. tax code needs to be rewritten “for the 21st century.” He points out that the tax code we are using was created in 1913 (before the Great Depression and the New Deal, I might add) and was last revised in any meaningful way in 1986—“before the Internet had any commercial use, before most of us had cellphones, before the U.S. began running $1 trillion annual deficits, before the oldest baby boomers retired, before income inequality had become a global phenomenon, before the advent of the euro, and before China, rather than Japan, became America’s main economic competitor.” Continue reading →