Month: April 2014
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Lane Kenworthy, Prosperity, and the Infinite Forms of “Redistribution”
I haven’t beaten the drum lately for Lane Kenworthy — perhaps the best researcher out there on the economic effects of income and wealth distribution. His years of careful, diligent (and voluminous) statistical and analytic work, tapping the best data sets available, and his cogent, coherent explanations of his findings, should get a lot more attention…
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Repeat After Me: The American Tax System is Hardly Progressive at All
The latest numbers on 2014 taxes as share of income are out, and they’re saying pretty much the same thing as last year: Above about $80K a year in income, the American tax system is not really progressive. Like, at all: The people making $100K a year pay about the same share of income as people making…
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The Global “Capital” Glut
No, I’m not talking about Piketty hitting the Times bestseller list. And it’s not just wild-eyed lefty Frenchman who are expressing concern about the state of world capital these days. Mitt Romney’s shop was beating this drum loudly more than a year ago. One of the central takeaways from Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century is the U-shaped…
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ALEC: Destroying the American Economy, One State at a Time
The American Legislative Exchange Council — which authors ultra-conservative legislation and promulgates it to state legislatures nationwide — has a little index measure of states’ “competitiveness,” which supposedly results in greater prosperity for those states that rank highly. Does it? Let’s let the numbers speak for themselves: Source (PDF). Cross-posted at Angry Bear. Related posts:…
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Thinking About Piketty’s “Capital”
The quotes in this post’s subject line are very much intended as a double entendre. I’m of course referring to the title of Piketty’s book (which I’ve read about 80% of, jumping around). But even more, I’m talking about his definition of “capital.” I’ve ranted frequently about economists’ failure to define this term or agree on…