From: NY Times
All too often, efforts to speed up a jobs bill or stimulus package are labelled as "rushing frantically," but the truth is that stimulus programs would help real people who are struggling. They needed help last month, not six months from now.
From: Time
"When you buy a dishwasher, you know it probably won't explode. When you buy aspirin, you can figure out the side effects without an advanced degree. When you buy zucchini, you can feel confident it won't be toxic. And when you buy movie tickets, you can presume the terms of your purchase won't change after you leave the window."Yet, the banking industry has found a way to avoid presenting such clearly labelled products. More than that, financial instruments have become more complex and the explanations more convoluted. Sure, banks will suffer a bit as consumers begin to make more educated decisions about their money based on clear options; but how this is bad for the economy escapes me.
3. Tax Rates for Top 400 Earners Fall as Income Soars, IRS Data
From: Tax.com
The most idiotic aspect of this is that the effective tax rate for someone making $60,000 is only 1%-2% less than someone making $400 million. And only 8% of the top 400 earners payed the top tax bracket. Some even managed not to pay taxes at all.
4. Stupidest Thing: Obama’s Faith-Based Economics
4. Stupidest Thing: Obama’s Faith-Based Economics
From: The National Review
I don't wan't to get into a debate about how the exact number of jobs the stimulus bill created, but certain parts of this author's logic are flawed. Mainly:
"The idea that government spending creates jobs makes sense only if you never ask where the government got the money. It didn’t fall from the sky. The only way Congress can inject spending into the economy is by first taxing or borrowing it out of the economy. No new demand is created; it’s a zero-sum transfer of existing demand."I'm out of time, though. A smarter person that me would probably explain it better anyway...
4. Interesting Graph:
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