The New Estate Tax

The Ways and Means plan included an estate tax with a rate ranging from 1 percent to 5 percent and an exemption of $50,000. (The value of this exemption in today’s dollars is the subject of some dispute. Estimates range from roughly $900,000 to more than $11 million, depending on the method and political agenda at work. Calculations based on the commodity price index — popular among estate tax supporters — yield the lower number; calculations based on gross domestic product — popular among opponents — yield the higher estimate. For a useful survey of relative value calculations, see the calculator at http://www.eh.net/hmit/compare.)

Tax History Project — A Century of Soaking the Rich — The Origins of the Federal Estate Tax.

Most of the 2022 and 2023 savings ($28 billion) are supposed to come from putting caps on entitlement spending in those years. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Jeff Sessions says these savings are of “dubious validity,” but he is being polite. After all, we now know that Republicans won’t stick with caps when push comes to shove, so I would call those future caps “worthless.

via More on the Ryan-Murray Budget Deal | Cato @ Liberty.

They explain that “regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions will have no meaningful effect on global climate change. The EPA admitted this in its own proposed rule.”

via How EPA Regulations Will Kill Jobs and Reduce Your Income.

The Definitive Rich Vs Poor Chart: “The Rich Hold Assets, The Poor Have Debt” | Zero Hedge.

In a March 29, 2012 email, she wrote, “I thought he had already retired. She then initiated a review that was forwarded to the EPA general counsel’s office . But the inspector general’s office was not alerted until February 2013 and he didn\’t actually retire until April.

via Climate change expert’s fraud was ‘crime of massive proportion,’ say feds – Investigations.

Oh the Irony; Liberal NYC Elites are ObamaCare Losers « Commentary Magazine.

The editorial makes it sound as though Mr. Cuomo will be \”ponying up money\” out of his own pocket, rather than by taxing New Yorkers who already live in one of the highest-tax states in the nation (first or third, depending on how you count). Some of those New Yorkers have made different choices than Dasani\’s parents. They may have chosen to have fewer children than eight, or to avoid using illegal drugs, or to move out of New York City to areas where housing costs are lower, such as upstate. The editorial doesn\’t make the case for the justice of taxing a hardworking, law-abiding New York family of four who moves out of the city to afford an unsubsidized rent so that Dasani\’s non-working, drug-addicted parents can remain in New York City in an apartment that can accommodate their family of eight.

via Battling Homelessness in NYC :: Smartertimes.com.

The answer rests in the dominance of neo-mercantilism as the most successful economic orthodoxy of our time. For those new to this, the text book definition will suffice. Neo-mercantilism is a policy regime borrowed from 19th century Kaiser Germany. It encourages exports, discourages imports, controls capital movement, and centralises currency decisions in the hands of a central government (to reduce reliance on flighty foreign capital). The point is to increase the level of foreign reserves held by the sovereign government, allowing for an accommodating domestic monetary policy. It also looks like it works — you can make a good case for it being responsible for the superior growth rates seen across Asia since the 1980s. However it comes with what I think is about to be a major problem. It has made domestic monetary policy in most Asian countries very pro-cyclical and we haven\’t really yet tested this pro-cyclicality to the downside. What happens when the rest of the world becomes unwilling to raise its indebtedness further in order to buy Asian-produced products and facilitate Asian growth? And what if that is about where we are right now?

via Hugh Hendry Throws In The Bearish Towel: His Full Must-Read Letter | Zero Hedge.