Economics Thread

I think this tidbit belongs in the economics thread:
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EssenViews/Commentary
‏ @essenviews
9h9 hours ago

Trump plots to cancel research into curing diseases like Alzheimer’s:

The Trump administration is considering cutting $100 million worth of crucial

medical research into developing new vaccines and treating diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.



https://shareblue.com/trump-cancel-medical-research-fetal-tissue-hhs-alzheimers/
 
Jaw said:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corn...tez-is-right-about-amazons-corporate-welfare/

After a long process, Amazon finally announced that it will locate its new headquarters in New York and Virginia. Following the announcement, Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that “Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.”

As a result of her tweet, conservative commentators all over twitter and on shows like Fox Business’s Varney & Co. are making fun of her. They argue that her reaction is yet more evidence that she doesn’t get economics and that doesn’t want New Yorkers and Virginians to get the thousands of jobs that will be created there thanks to the new headquarters.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Ocasio-Cortez is mostly correct on this matter, and her conservative critics are wrong. Handouts like this to Amazon and other prominent companies are appalling in their cronyism, pure and simple. I agree that she doesn’t understand economics and that her socialist ideal is a recipe for fiscal and economic disaster. But her conservative critics reveal their own economic misunderstanding when they support targeted tax breaks as a means of creating jobs.

I've never been much of a National Review fan. Seeing one of their writers go against most of their party here is a pleasant surprise.
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I'm an Ocasio-Cortez skeptic (though I wish her well), but she is right on the mark here. One of the cock-eyed statements I have concocted is that "everyone is a capitalist on the way up and a socialist after they get to the top." Local governments falling all over themselves to woo Amazon (and the countless other corporate giants in other instances) is so ridiculous. One thing that really made me laugh is that Minnesota put together a modest package just to say they bought the equivalent of a Powerball ticket. The conservatives in the state just railed that (1) the package wasn't enticing enough, and (2) Amazon wouldn't come here anyway because we have high state taxes. Funny that half of the headquarters ended up in a state with even higher state taxes than Minnesota. Long story short, these corporations are just looking for the biggest fruit basket in the here and now. They don't give two sh*ts about the long-term.
 
local governments should realize that if they made their communities as attractive as possible to live in the rest will follow with zero need for corporate pork
 
She is a moron but what I dont agree with is just dismissing her for being a socialist. All should br welcome in the arena of ideas. The news media shouldnt be telling us who the serious candidates are.
 
cajunrevenge said:
She is a moron but what I dont agree with is just dismissing her for being a socialist. All should br welcome in the arena of ideas. The news media shouldnt be telling us who the serious candidates are.
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I wasn't branding Ocasio-Cortez with the socialist tag. She is who she is and I'm fine with that. The intent of my comments was to dis the corporations who rail against government spending until it's spent on them. They are a bunch of duplicitous pr*cks.
 
It wasnt directed at anyone here. I just dont agree with how much of the media scoffs at her. I think she is wrong but lets have an open debate of ideas in this country instead of just dismissing groups for not being considered mainstream. They do it to my side too.
 
cajunrevenge said:
It wasnt directed at anyone here. I just dont agree with how much of the media scoffs at her. I think she is wrong but lets have an open debate of ideas in this country instead of just dismissing groups for not being considered mainstream. They do it to my side too.
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I think her perspectives should be welcomed into the debate. I just don't think they will prevail beyond some likely changes to health care (and they will probably be modest changes).
 
Feds collect more tax receipts in US history this October, the first month of the new fiscal year.

Crazy, because there was such a massive tax cut.

octtax7.jpg
 
CBO summary of fiscal year 2018

https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-11/54647-MBR.pdf

Receipts from corporate income taxes, the third-largest source of revenues, fell by
$92 billion (or 31 percent) in 2018, dropping from 1.5 percent to 1.0 percent of GDP. That
percentage of GDP is the lowest recorded since 2009, and it is half of the 50-year average
of 2.0 percent of GDP. The decline reflects payments for both the 2017 and the 2018 tax
years; about half of that decline has occurred since June. Collections from June until the
end of the fiscal year mostly were in the form of estimated payments for tax year 2018,
when several provisions of P.L. 115-97 took effect, including the new lower corporate tax
rate. Another provision, which expanded businesses’ ability to immediately deduct the full
value of equipment purchases, was effective retroactively for the last quarter of 2017.
 
smoltzie29 said:
My post was about the first month of FY2019.

And how were total tax receipts in FY 2018?
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I understand you were talking about October 2018. But why focus on one month when we have data on fiscal year 2018 (October 2017-September 2018). Focusing on October at the exclusion of the other data strikes me as a blatant case of cherry picking, the kind of thing I suppose I should expect from an acolyte of Ron Paul's and someone who holds Russia Today in high regard.

You ask what happened to receipts in FY 2018. The data is there is the report I linked. Along with a great deal of other useful information. Have a look at it.

Where is sturg btw.
 
nsacpi said:
I understand you were talking about October 2018. But why focus on one month when we have data on fiscal year 2018 (October 2017-September 2018). Focusing on October at the exclusion of the other data strikes me as a blatant case of cherry picking, the kind of thing I suppose I should expect from an acolyte of Ron Paul's and someone who holds Russia Today in high regard.

You ask what happened to receipts in FY 2018. The data is there is the report I linked. Along with a great deal of other useful information. Have a look at it.

Where is sturg btw.
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But corporate taxes only make up 7% of tax receipts.

My understanding tells me that tax receipts were highest ever in FY18.

October of FY19 off to a great start.

Sturg is not allowed on here at work on work device so he had to go through VPN from corporate phone
 
I guess the broader point is, people are blaming deficits on tax cuts, but tax receipts are higher than ever.

So why are we so afraid to call out the spending?
 
smoltzie29 said:
I guess the broader point is, people are blaming deficits on tax cuts, but tax receipts are higher than ever.

So why are we so afraid to call out the spending?
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population is higher than ever, prices are higher than ever, GDP is higher than ever...that's why tax revenues are up
 
nsacpi said:
for the same reasons...you may want to look at the CBO graph showing both spending and revenues as a percentage of GDP over the years
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I will when I'm back home.

Last I looked it was over 20% where historically we used to live in the mid to high teens
 
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