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Posts tagged ‘deficit’

Apr 24

robin anderson
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Coding Errors and Challenging Assumptions: Why the Debate over Reinhart-Rogoff Matters

Last week, the economics blogosphere was ablaze with commentary on an economics paper from 2010 called “Growth in the Time Debt.” The paper was by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, both of Harvard, and has come to be known as just “Reinhart-Rogoff.” What’s so big about a three-year-old economics paper? Well, most of the current calls for austerity in the U.S. and around the world cite this paper as the major influence in cutting government spending…oh, and the conclusions of the paper turn out to be wrong. Read more

Nov 29

robin anderson

Taxing the Wealthy on the Margins and on Average

Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, reiterated his view on a so-called “millionaires tax” in an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Sunday. If you’d like to read about what a billionaire thinks about what millionaires should do, it’s an interesting read.

Here’s a quick summary of his views:

First, in the not so distant past, marginal tax rates for upper income households and tax rates on capital gains and dividends were quite high and – guess what – the wealthy weren’t throwing their money under a mattress, they were investing. Second, the rich should pay their fair share in taxes.  Buffett suggests that households with incomes above US$500,000 (not the US$250,000 that Obama has proposed) to return to the pre-Bush era tax rates. And he reiterated his “Buffet Rule,” which calls on Congress to develop a minimum tax for millionaires: 30% for income between US$1 million and US$10 million, and 35% for incomes over US$10 million. Finally, he is, of course, pushing for debt sustainability – moving revenues to 18.5% to GDP and spending to 21% of GDP. Buffet cites that the United States currently takes in 15.5% of GDP in revenue and spending is about 22.4% of GDP.

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