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"Pay their fair share of taxes" Biden asks of corporations showing 2017 predecessor tax cuts did not increase investment and added $100 billion yearly to the US Deficit
03/08/2024
By paying their fair share of taxes Biden says in State of Union speech to US Congress 2024 one can increase investment in education, affordable childcare and better living for seniors in their homes, and still cut the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. What is fair share? Certainly not zero percent that 55 of the largest corporations paid on $40 billion in profits in 2020, and corporate minimum tax was introduced at levels of 15% for which most ordinary Americans are not eligible for. And certainly not 8.2% that Biden said was being paid by 1000 billionaires in the US. Not a single penny more is being asked of hard working Americans earning less than $400,000 a year. Biden said he wanted to see the corporate minimum tax at 21% not 15%, and the top corporate tax rate set at 28% not the 21% that it was reduced to in 2017 from 35%. In short his predecessor turned to help companies and billionaires profit from the popular distress of the shipping of jobs overseas and the 2009 financial crisis caused by Bank executives without investing the nation's capital resources in manufacturing at home in scale to match and exceed China's. And at the same time neglecting to do anything about the concerns of the people for ease of living- affordable access to childcare, preschool education, education, health care to match Europe/China/India in quality and cost, and aging transportation infrastructure of airports, subways, roads and bridges. The savings when this is done properly go to cut the deficit by over 4 trillion dollars and keep America as the leader of all G-20 economies.
Linked Articles
Biden Draws Sharp Contrast With Trump in State of the Union
WSJ 03/07/2024
Biden Pushes More Corporate-Tax Hikes to Draw Contrast With TrumpWSJ 03/07/2024
Softbank the epitome of massively distorted capital markets even as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technolgies, infrastructure suffered severe lack of funding
08/08/2022
How Softbank became the epitome and poster child for the distorted capital markets of today is shown here in the WSJ. It is a sad story of how America and Europe failed to invest in its people with egregious harm to 900 million people as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technologies and infrastructure were neglected.
Linked Articles
WSJ 08/08/2022
SoftBank Reports Record $23 Billion Quarterly Loss as Tech Downturn HitsWSJ 08/08/2022
India's general election in 2019- performance and flaws of the Modi government
06/05/2018
Differing views of the Modi government, views of the middle class hurt by demonetisation uncertainty from Dhume and views representing the interests of the rural, lower income and other part of the middle class from Arvind Panagriya. Some of the changes brought about by the Modi government reflecting the vision of Mahatma Gandhi for fundamental change from the ground up in the villages and rural parts of India- health and sanitation, access to bank accounts, access to health care- coupled with Nehru's vision of modernization using the technologies of the twenty first century.
Linked Articles
Times of India Blog 06/05/2018
Modi government at four years: It has pushed through a range of structural reforms whose results will showTimes of India Blog 05/30/2018
Republican House health care bill in 2017 and shift in priorities- $337 billion in savings, expected lower premiums, but leaving 14 million more uninsured in 2018
03/13/2017
A shift in priorities from the poor to the middle class- targeting lower premiums for people who have seen their premiums increase sharply, reducing the overall cost with savings of $337 billion, yet leaving 14 million more people uninsured.
Linked Articles
CBO Sees 24 Million More Uninsured, $337 Billion Deficit Cut in Coming Decade With GOP Health Plan
WSJ 03/13/2017
US health bill 'to leave 14m more uninsured' - BBC NewsBBC News 03/13/2017
Speaker Paul Ryan's House seat in Janesville, Wisconsin- improving economy in a U.S. midwestern factory town and the debate on trade, help for working class families
08/10/2016
The unemployment rate in Janesville, Wisconsin drops to 4.4% in May 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was over 9% following the closing of the GM plant and the recession from the 2008 financial crisis. A working class town Janesville was hit hard by the closing of the GM plant in 2008. Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post describes the impact of losing about 5000 jobs at the GM plant, and the problems typical of most manufacturing dependent towns. Throughout the period since being first elected to Congress in 1998 Ryan has continued to be able to get elected on the basis of faith, family and public service, even though some of his policies may not have helped the poor and elderly or laid off workers. Ryan voted for rescuing the auto industry and worked hard to keep the GM plant, and listens to his constituents, and as the economy recovered by 2016 won easily in this old industrial midwestern town. His influence in national politics gives Janesville an opportunity to be heard, as it tackles problems common to many midwestern towns in the U.S.
Linked Articles
Could Paul Ryan’s ideas help his struggling home town? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 08/19/2012
Paul Ryan beats outsider 'mini-Donald Trump' challenger in Wisconsin primaryThe Guardian 08/10/2016
Speaker Paul Ryan of the U.S. House of Representatives as the presiding officer at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the party program
04/21/2016
Linked Articles
Inside Paul Ryan’s quest to set the Republican agenda - The Washington Post
Washington Post 04/21/2016
Republicans Begin Tangling Over Convention RulesWall Street Journal 04/22/2016
Elvira Nabiullina, head of Russia's central bank, and Russia's response to the collapse in oil prices that helped avoid effects on the economy
02/09/2015
Exceptional performance by an exceptional economy minister and banker. Elvira Nabiullina's humility, drive and policies help shape Russia's careful management of the collapse in oil prices.
Linked Articles
Economist 04/19/2016
Ruble’s Fall Tests Governor of Russia’s Central BankNew York Times 02/09/2015
Tragedy in Africa (2) - Ebola virus and the breakdown for healthcare, running water, electricity, coupled with food shortages in West Africa
10/10/2014
Linked Articles
Liberia’s Ebola Crisis Puts President in Harsh Light
New York Times 10/30/2014
Rising Food Prices Make Africa Fight Ebola on Empty StomachWall Street Journal 10/10/2014
The uninsured without health coverage and the Obama health care law- why a majority of uninsured say it will increase their costs
12/18/2013
In a recent CBS/NYT poll 57% of the uninsured say it will increase their healthcare costs, only 20% of the uninsured say it will decrease their costs. A third of the uninsured say they will pay the penalty and not sign up for coverage under the law.
Linked Articles
Uninsured Skeptical of Health Care Law in Poll
New York Times 12/18/2013
Growth in U.S. Health Care Spending SlowsNew York Times 12/18/2013
The Jinping-Keqiang leadership in China and the need to help consumers by reducing pharmaceutical and healthcare costs (2)
05/31/2013
The particular need to help the elderly in an aging population for China. The elderly suffer most from the need to set aside a large portion of savings for healthcare costs (Orlik).
Linked Articles
Politics Is a Bitter Pill for Glaxo
Wall Street Journal 07/25/2013
Aging Chinese Face a Bleak PictureWall Street Journal 05/31/2013
The new Jinping-Keqiang leadership and reducing pharmaceutical and healthcare costs to help consumers in China (1)
10/03/2012
After a decade of decline in consumer spending in favor of infrastructure spending to where it is now only 35% of GDP, or half that in the U.S. as a percentage of GDP, China's leadership realizes the need to help consumers. It is seen as high on the list of priorities for the Party's survival. Ordinary Chinese, rural households and the elderly are seriously affected by the high cost of healthcare and the need to set aside a large portion of savings for medical emergencies (Orlik). This further depresses consumer after the impact of low savings rates. With a bursting of the property bubble the money depositors shifted to real estate is also at risk for middle class investors.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 10/03/2012
Politics Is a Bitter Pill for GlaxoWall Street Journal 07/25/2013
Romney, Camp, Ryan and the outlines of an approach to the U.S. deficit and the U.S. tax code
08/12/2012
Linked Articles
George Will: Romney’s presidential pick - The Washington Post
Washington Post 08/13/2012
Dave Camp: Is Tax Reform Politically Possible?Wall Street Journal 08/12/2012
Rep. Paul Ryan, his mentor Jack Kemp, and their focus on the idea of generating economic growth
08/12/2012
Linked Articles
Finding the Roots of Candidate's Economic Beliefs
Wall Street Journal 08/12/2012
Stephen Moore: The Kempian Roots of RyanomicsWall Street Journal 08/12/2012
Reagan, Greenspan and America's lost years 1980-2009
11/17/2023
It was in this period that many of the problems that we face today were created through policies of low interest rates, deregulation and financial market speculation leading to the financial crisis of 2008. At the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1980 China was still a country of bicycles and largely rural, by 2009 it had transformed itself into the largest manufacturing nation in the world and continued to 2023. In the US financial deregulation and lack of health care for all allowed financial interests to become the dominant force in the economy in a speculative way , and defunded manufacturing, infrastructure and public services. The work of FDR, Truman Eisenhower and Kennedy unraveled, Clinton, Obama and Trump continued that decline.
Linked Articles
Puerto Rico Was Supposed to Be John Paulson’s Paradise. Then Came the Lawsuits.
WSJ 11/16/2023
Trader Made Billions on SubprimeWSJ Jan 15 2008 01/15/2008
Rebuilding Health care systems in Africa
01/24/2019
Linked Articles
JapanGov - The Government of Japan 01/24/2019
West Africa Struggles to Rebuild Its Ravaged Health-Care SystemWall Street Journal 06/05/2015
Senators Moran and Collins from Kansas and Maine who oppose the Republican healthcare bill and the bill's failure in the Senate in 2017
07/18/2017
Linked Articles
Why the Senate health care bill is in trouble, in 2 quotes
CNN 07/05/2017
Unlikely Holdout Underscores Challenge for Senate Health BillThe New York Times 07/06/2017
The 1976 Montreal Olympics, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the Rio Olympics- decades long debt hangovers and costs growing from the $1+ billion in Montreal to $50+ billion in Sochi
08/24/2016
Developing and developed countries alike have seen the cost of the Olympics as a huge burden. Many countries or cities that committed to hosting the Olympic games during boom years were facing economic hard times by the time of the games. Corruption and mismanagement of public funds, overspending and cost overruns added to the problems. Citizens uproar caused cities such as Boston and Oslo to withdraw bids for the Olympics. The Olympics appears to be a costly way to show off a country, and raises questions about better allocation of funds in other directions, especially when upward mobility is a problem for the middle and working class, countries have other infrastructure needs, and neglected basic needs in education, healthcare, public services.
Linked Articles
The 40-year hangover: how the 1976 Olympics nearly broke Montreal
The Guardian 07/06/2016
Rio Games Highlight Problems With the Olympic ModelThe New York Times 08/23/2016
Brazil's 2016 Summer Olympics- indifference and anger of ordinary Brazilians that the $12 billion was not invested in improving public services, infrastructure, healthcare and education
08/04/2016
Linked Articles
A Chastened Brazil Welcomes Its Summer Games
WSJ 08/04/2016
Brazil’s Other Olympic Spirits: Anger, Anxiety and IndifferenceThe New York Times 08/04/2016
Bringing a new openness to leadership at the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016- Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin
10/30/2015
Linked Articles
Paul Ryan Brings Sharply Different Leadership Style to House
New York Times 12/07/2015
Paul Ryan is right about the House being broken. But he probably can’t fix it. - The Washington PostWashington Post 10/30/2015
Looking back at Hong Kong and China today and yesterday- China in 1842 and in 1945, nationalism and commercial interests of foreign powers
01/09/2015
A wariness with foreign powers in China stems from the influences left behind from the British commercial interests and the Japanese invasion of China. Compared to that period, the period of collaboration on an equal footing and playing field is is a short and recent one that has taken place for just three decades 1985-2015. Fears that the accelerated development in China could slow down without a strong central government, combine with the awareness of the need for western technology and open communications in today's global economy to accelerate the development, create in the Chinese mind a problem that needs to be tackled carefully to continue progress. Awareness of the huge inequalities and corruption in the rush towards modernization, need to tackle extensive contamination of air and water, and need for social security and healthcare for an aging population create a new urgency for careful policy making to sustain progress.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 01/12/2015
‘China 1945,’ by Richard BernsteinNew York Times 01/09/2015
Faces of workers quitting work or reducing hours as they qualify for subsidies on health insurance under the Obama Healthcare Law
02/05/2014
Faces of the workers taking subsidies available to lower income workers under the Obama Health Care Law. The Congressional Budget Office projections for 2021 show about the equivalent of 2.3 million workers worth of hours reduced as a result of the healthcare law subsidies giving workers more choice. Many use the time to work on startup business or child care for grandchildren. The jobs freed up and the hours could be taken up by other workers looking for jobs. Gains in childcare would be another result.
Linked Articles
Health Law To Cut Into Labor Force
Wall Street Journal 02/05/2014
They quit their jobs, thanks to the health law - The Washington PostWashington Post 02/09/2014
The broken link between credit expansion and GDP growth in China (1)
06/24/2013
Orlik and the editors of the WSJ point to the broken link between GDP growth and credit expansion. The IMF warns of increasing credit expansion. Stalling productivity growth and waste means every dollar of investment is bringing in less GDP growth. Stiglitz and Sen point out the need for improving other indicators such as healthcare, education and the environment as an overall guage of progress not just GDP growth. The new Chinese leadership is aware of the need for rebalance the economy towards consumer spending. Moves to reduce healthcare costs form the first efforts in this direction. Search terms "Orlik," "rebalancing."
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 07/01/2013
China's Silver Linings PlaybookWall Street Journal 06/24/2013
Mo Yan and Wang Xiaofang exposing corruption and arrogant government officials in China through fictional characters and humor
10/11/2012
Both writers use fictional characters to vent people's anger at arrogant officials from the government and party- this predates the communist regime and goes back to the days from the earlier part of the twentieth century down to the present day.
Linked Articles
The Deeply Odd Lives of Chinese Bureaucrats
Wall Street Journal 03/14/2013
Mo Yan Mines a Deep Well of Material in ChinaNew York Times 10/11/2012
How keeping seniors as a protected class in current Social Security proposals impacts the young and leads to shrinking investments in defense, social programs, research, education and infrastructure
08/16/2012
This includes the Republican Paul Ryan proposal which also stays away from touching Social Security for today's seniors and passes on the costs to the young. Democrats are using demagoguery and intimidation on this issue. Samuelson cites CBO estimates which show that even with shrinking defense and nondiscretionary spending by a third the U.S. deficit would still be 6.75% of GDP in 2023.
Linked Articles
Robert Samuelson: Ryan’s budget asks nothing of the elderly -; unfortunately - The Washington Post
Washington Post 08/16/2012
Mr. Biden falls flat - The Washington PostWashington Post 08/16/2012
The importance of letting Rep. Paul Ryan speak directly to voters for the Romney presidential campaign
08/12/2012
The importance of keeping the focus on growth in this campaign cannot be underestimated, says WSJ
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 08/12/2012
Stephen Moore: The Kempian Roots of RyanomicsWall Street Journal 08/12/2012
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