Tim Geithner seemed to make it pretty clear today that the administration plans to let the Bush tax cuts for individuals making more than $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000 expire. Here is the rationale for increasing taxes: “We think that’s the responsible thing to do because we need to make sure we can […]
Archive for July, 2010
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JournoList: Overblown Scandal And Sad Commentary
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 24th, 2010
Still nursing a very sore right paw (hand), so blogging has been pretty close to impossible. Some new meds appear to be working, thus I’ll take a chance I can bang out a few posts without doing further damage. Let’s start with the now infamous JournoList tempest. If you’ve missed this one, it’s about a […]
One Case For Bricks And Mortar
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 18th, 2010
Wonder why investors have been snapping up single family homes? This graph from Mike Mandel might explain a little. It’s probably worth noting that the gains from home ownership reflect only prices here, not the favorable tax advantages or, if you were an investor and bought wisely positive cash flow. I tend to think that […]
Will Obama Stop Iran’s Nuclear March?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 18th, 2010
The World has been rightly focused on economics for much of the past two years, so much so that geopolitical issues, though raised often enough, have a tendency to be pushed back into the mists as we confront what we perceive to be the immediate threat. Well, Walter Russell Mead has come along with a […]
Small Banks And TARP: A Train Wreck
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 14th, 2010
In the scheme of things it’s a bit trifling but this month’s report from the Congressional Oversight Committee charged with reviewing the execution of TARP and other facets of the financial services rescue is an object lesson in what can and may have gone wrong with the program. It deals with the plight of small […]
Strategic Defaults, The Rich And Non-Recourse Loans
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 9th, 2010
The topic du jour is David Streitfeld’s article in the NYT about the rich opting for strategic defaults. If you missed it, he uses some data from Core Logic and anecdotal tales to argue that the rich are defaulting at a rate in excess of the general population. Streitfeld points out the concern that strategic […]
Here’s How Spending Has Been Maintained
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 9th, 2010
Sometimes the answers are pretty simple. This chart from EconomPicData.com pretty much tells you all you need to know about the state of the recovery, why businesses small and large are hoarding their cash and not hiring and probably why the Democrats get pasted in November.
