Washington Post (December 2)
Pfizer’s planned tax inversion highlights a dilemma “of almost-impenetrable complexity and contentiousness: How to tax multinational companies?” To minimize their taxes, “large global firms…are becoming more aggressive.” At the same time, governments are “increasingly desperate to raise tax revenue to pay for aging societies and cover persistent budget deficits.”
Tags: Aging societies, Budget deficits, Dilemma, Governments, Inversion, Multinationals, Pfizer, Taxes
New York Times (July 26)
“While the eurozone may have temporarily avoided a Greek exit, it is hard to see how a deal that requires more spending cuts, higher taxes and only vague promises of debt relief can restore the crippled economy enough to keep Greece in the currency union.”
Tags: Currency union, Debt relief, Economy, eurozone, Exit, Greece, Spending cuts, Taxes
Wall Street Journal (January 26)
While the Greeks are likely to remain in the eurozone, “the Syriza victory is nonetheless a rebuke to European leaders. Greeks believe, not unreasonably, that the conditions imposed by the troika have been disastrous.” Rather than “promoting pro-growth reforms,” the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund imposed measures focused on “draconian fiscal tightening.” The result was predictable: “falling wages and pensions and rising taxes, with no growth in return for the pain.”
Tags: Draconian, ECB, European Commission, European leaders, eurozone, Fiscal tightening, Greek, Growth, IMF, Pensions, Reforms, Syriza, Taxes, Victory, Wages
Chicago Tribune (January 9)
“A fast-evolving yet underappreciated phenomenon in American life and politics” is being brought about by millennials who “are so smitten with mobile technology and its social and economic applications that they see tech as the solution to just about everything.” Their digital mindset is driving their politics to become increasingly libertarian. They are “very liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and legalized pot, yet very skeptical of government efforts to regulate the economy or levy taxes.”
Tags: Applications, Economy, Liberal, Libertarian, Life, Millennials, Mobile technology, Politics, Taxes, Tech, U.S.
USA Today (May 2)
“You know something is wrong when major U.S. companies are fleeing to Europe to pay less in taxes.” If Pfizer succeeds with plans to move its tax domicile, its effective tax rate will drop from 27.5% to 20%. “The U.S. corporate rate of 35%, with an average of 4.1% added by states, is the highest in the world.”
Chicago Tribune (October 16)
“Raising the debt limit neither authorizes new spending nor increases our national debt by a single dime…. It simply allows us to pay the bills Congress has already racked up.” As such, the debt ceiling should be repealed. “All it does is make the markets jittery and provide an opportunity for contemptible, hypocritical grandstanding that distracts from serious negotiations about taxes and spending. At worst it crashes the economy. No president, Democrat or Republican, should ever again have to negotiate with Congress with such a threat over his or her head.”
Tags: Congress, Debt ceiling, Democrat, Economy, Markets, National debt, Negotiations, President, Republican, Spending, Taxes, U.S.
Washington Post (September 25)
“If the federal government shuts down Oct. 1, a depressingly plausible prospect, D.C. residents will feel the impact more than most Americans because the city is barred from spending its revenues absent a federal appropriation. Even though D.C.’s budget is largely comprised of locally raised taxes, in a shutdown only essential services can continue. That translates into fewer garbage pickups, no street cleaning and shuttered libraries and recreation centers.”
Tags: Essential services, Garbage, Government, Libraries, Recreation, Revenues, Shutdown, Streets, Taxes, U.S., Washington D.C.
Wall Street Journal (August 29)
“In 1950 France had five people of working age per retiree. Today it has 1.4, and the ratio is expected to fall to 1.2 by 2050.” France’s newly unveiled pension reform will not “defuse” the pension bomb. “Paying for a growing number of retirees with a pay-as-you-go system that invests little for the future is a losing game. It will ultimately require much smaller pensions or much higher taxes, a fact that French businesses understand well even if the political class won’t admit it.”
Financial Times (July 25)
“Since taking office in the spring, the new Chinese leadership knew it had to boost a slowing economy, while, at the same time, rebalancing it away from state-driven investment. Some of the measures included in the ‘mini-stimulus’ Beijing announced on Wednesday strike this difficult balance.” By cutting red tape for exporters and taxes for small companies, the package may succeed in letting “hundreds of small firms bloom.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Economy, Exporters, Leadership, Rebalancing, Slowing, Stimulus, Taxes
USA Today (November 29)
As the U.S. approaches the fiscal cliff “an alarming number of people…are declaring that going over the cliff wouldn’t be so bad after all.” It would. Congress needs to reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. “While spending cuts and tax hikes are needed to rein in federal deficits, having them kick in all at once would be like a drug overdose that plunges the economy into a new recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office and independent economists.”
