Via Reddit, I saw this gem about a guy who essentially did a self-IPO and puts shares of himself up for bid to raise money. The result was that his investors had an outsized effect on his life, going so far as to make decisions about the gender of the people he should date and… Continue reading Stir-Fried Random
Walk A Mile
Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, has come out in favor of gay marriage because his son is gay. Some people were less than impressed with the fact that apparently empathy starts and stops at the front door of their own house. Others cut him a little more slack. I have to admit feeling… Continue reading Walk A Mile
Minnesota Tax Incidence 2013
I’m a couple days late to this, but it’s that time of the year: the 2013 Minnesota Tax Incidence Study has come out. I post about this regularly, so let’s take a look at what is new in 2013! Let’s start with the standard picture: the overall effective tax rate. Little has changed in… Continue reading Minnesota Tax Incidence 2013
The Unkindest Cut
There are a lot of things that bother me about the “sequester”, not the least of which is the fact that it is completed unnecessary and could be fixed with a quick repeal of the law. But another thing I hate, which I hated just as much when it was used at the state level,… Continue reading The Unkindest Cut
The Deal II
So I finished reading the The Deal (it took a couple hours at most), and the result was a fleshing out of pretty much everything that was in the original blog post. The long-term deficit isn’t hard to understand: it’s caused by health-care benefits that are out of whack with taxes. It’s really that simple.… Continue reading The Deal II
The Deal
I saw this article a couple of days ago and it piqued my interest so much, I had to buy the e-book (it’s only 1.99!). I haven’t yet read it, so I’ll give my full review later, but the top 10 takeaways from Ezra Klein were true enough to make me want to comment already…
Tax Incidence Reviewed
I have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than go over finances. In doing so, I realized that I had miscalculated the tax incidence graphs I had previously created. The biggest change is for payroll taxes in college: instead of looking at my W2s I just assumed I was paying full Social Security… Continue reading Tax Incidence Reviewed
Consequences
I’m with Atrios on this one. Last night, I heard a story on Marketplace about a guy who was long-term unemployed, and then got a job writing for Mad Men. The end. It was a wholly unfulfilling story, essentially saying nothing other than “This guy found a way.” Nothing on how, or what is happening… Continue reading Consequences
2012 Tax Incidence
So I’ve done our 2012 taxes, and as such, I can update my last blog post on tax incidence. Graphs below…
Our Paris Trip
We left for Paris on Saturday, 5 January, flying overnight through Amsterdam to arrive in Paris on Sunday. We left the following Monday morning, so we were in Paris for over a week. Plenty of time to hit all the highlights. FYI, all pictures are here.