Curt Doolittle

Theme: Subsidy

  • Is There Any Independent, Third-party Research On The Fiscal Grievance Of Catalonia With Spain?

    Joe: that’s not what the numbers mean.
    Catalonia represents 14% of the population and pays 22% of the taxes.  The tax rate is both unfair, and harmful, since it is the one region of spain that might form an innovative industrial heartland, in southern Europe. Furthermore,  Catalonias speak a slightly different language and have a distinct culture and have tried repeatedly to gain independence from spain, only succeeding for a brief period.

    Federalism only works if a culture is homogenous.  That is the problem for the US, and for Europe,

    https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-independent-third-party-research-on-the-fiscal-grievance-of-Catalonia-with-Spain

  • KRUGMAN Straw Man Of The Day : iPhone 5 Shows We Are All Keynesians?

    Krugman’s straw man of the day uses discussions about the impact of the iPhone 5 release on the economy to suggest we are all Keynesians, and that government should spend more money.

    [callout] [/callout]

    But all actions have costs. And Americans have decided that the cost of funding expansion of government influence, power, and corruption is so high, that government stimulus is even worse then continuing recession. So, while Americans may understand, within reason, the value of stimulus. Unlike Keynesian economists, American’s also understand the cost of the expansionist state. And they have had quite enough of it. Unlike certain Nobel laureates.

  • THE DEMAND CURVE FOR COCAINE Thanks to the irrepressible Robert Murphy. A humoro

    THE DEMAND CURVE FOR COCAINE

    Thanks to the irrepressible Robert Murphy.

    A humorous way to teach a basic idea: prohibition increases price and demand, and by means of artificial scarcity, distributes vast amounts of money to producers of banned substances. One of the best ways to make money is to provide something that people want, and are willing to pay for, but it subject to extraordinary tariffs.

    Oh, to be a pirate on the seas. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-08 21:58:00 UTC

  • ECONOMIST OR LIBERTARIAN QUESTION: Does anyone know if there has been any resear

    ECONOMIST OR LIBERTARIAN QUESTION: Does anyone know if there has been any research done on student loan defaults by political preference?

    I know the most defaults came from the most left wing university. (Wesleyan.) But I haven’t seen anything on conservatives.

    It’d be an interesting statistic.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-04 13:00:00 UTC

  • Question: From the GSH perspective, does a woman have the right to bear a child

    Question: From the GSH perspective, does a woman have the right to bear a child that she cannot support, thus mandating transfers, and sacrifices, from others to her? The reason I ask is that while protestant christianity certainly contains content that is absurd, the effect of its “chinese room” (see Searle) is a prohibition on involuntary transfers, and a requirement for responsible independence. Democratic Secular Humanism appears rational, but encourages involuntary transfers. Christianity implies inequality is natural. DSH advocates (at least statistically) believe that humans are equal. So, there is madness on both sides. Or, would you suggest DSH as a political movement is separate from GSH as a personal philosophical movement?

    Source date (UTC): 2012-07-04 09:01:00 UTC

  • GEM: FROM SCOTT SUMNER: BUT POORER STATES DON’T VOTE TO INCREASE TAXES “There ar

    GEM: FROM SCOTT SUMNER: BUT POORER STATES DON’T VOTE TO INCREASE TAXES

    “There are studies showing places like Mississippi receive massive subsidies from other states. In my view those data are somewhat misleading. If taxpayers in New York pay into Social Security for many years, and then receive benefits when they retire in Florida, it seems a bit misleading to view that as some sort of gift from the state of New York to the state of Florida. Ditto for money spent on things like nuclear weapons silos in North Dakota. Nonetheless, I accept the basic point that poorer states like Mississippi are net receivers of federal money. But Mississippi does not elect Senators who call for higher taxes on the rich with the money going to support poor people in Mississippi.”

    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-28 07:08:00 UTC

  • SUBSIDY FOR EVERY TICKET FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS? OMG

    http://taxfoundation.org/blog/santa-clara-county-vs-san-francisco-49ers-battle-stadium-financing$72 SUBSIDY FOR EVERY TICKET FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS?

    OMG

    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-25 19:57:00 UTC

  • Stiglitz Joins In On Keynesian Spending In Order To Expand The Oppressive State

    Stiglitz Joins In On Keynesian Spending In Order To Expand The Oppressive State http://www.capitalismv3.com/2012/06/12/stiglitz-joins-in-on-keynesian-spending-in-order-to-expand-the-oppressive-state/

    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-20 14:13:19 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/215447238376292354

  • Is The “old Left” Still A Viable Force Anywhere In Left-wing Politics?

    No, the effort today has changed from arguing in favor of labor, to arguing in favor of the poor and minorities. And from arguing for rents, to arguing for direct redistribution.
    • Marxism and the managed economy have been discredited.
    • In no small part, Labor is no longer a significant force in society, they are less profitable to run, and Labor Unions have been successfully discredited due to their abuses.
    • Public works projects other than infastructural necessity do not produce the returns anticipated.
    • Much of the Great Society (housing) turns out to be a recipe for poverty and crime. Large central projects turn out to be ineffective (see Detroit, MI.)
    So the movement has focused on direct redistribution. There are many reasons for this change but I would need a more specific question in order to avoid writing a ten thousand words to cover the entire suite of reasons. The left leaning economists desperately want to change this, but the public won’t have it. They are done with additional taxes.

    https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Old-Left-still-a-viable-force-anywhere-in-left-wing-politics

  • How Is An Economic Stimulus Package Supposed To Work?

    There are a series of possible stimuli available from the short term to the long term.
    1) Spending – Fiscal Policy: the government borrows money, then spends it on any number of projects.  This puts money in the hands of consumers, consumers spend on things not related to the projects, and businesses respond in order to serve demand. Their employees spend too, and the cycle expands.  Problem? It takes a long time for money to move into the economy.
    2) Monetary Policy: the government borrows money and then auctions it off at low rates.  Bankers buy this ‘cheap’ money and sell it as lower cost loans to business and the public.  Problem? Sometimes (now) no matter how low you make the cost of credit (effectively zero) people will not borrow it.
    3) Trade Policy. Sometimes you can tax or reduce taxes on goods and services to make them cheaper or more expensive. So, for example, if you want to create jobs in say, clothing manufacture, you highly tax clothing imports.  Problem: this just makes goods and services more expensive for consumers, so it has to be paired with monetary policy.
    4) Industrial policy: what we did with the auto companies. You find a way to create or expand industries that create jobs or create demand.
    5) Education policy: train or retrain your population to produce goods and services that are desired, when the goods and services they produce are no longer as desirable.

    Most of the time, governments quickly adjust monetary policy then they try spending policy.  The argument today is that we should spend more. The problem is that people don’t trust their government to spend it wisely, and they therefore prefer to suffer a slower economy than fund bad behavior in government.

    https://www.quora.com/How-is-an-economic-stimulus-package-supposed-to-work