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I'd like to think so. However, the current administration has made a series of blunders that will have huge economic impact in the next few years, even if the next one corrects many of them. The last few years were a time to make careful course corrections and set some important things in motion... and we got hack and slash and kick-down-the-road and an outright damaging tax revision.
You have that bass-ackward. The economic policies of the prior administration were disastrous. The prior administration viewed business as an necessary evil source of tax revenue rather than as the principle engine of economic prosperity. The current administration has been the best in modern history with respect to the economy, including recognizing that China has been engaged in economic warfare against us for decades.
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Originally Posted by Quietude
I tend to have a negative outlook
You've just been nominated for the 2019 Understatement of the Year Award.
Our economy is propped up by various forms of debt. It's not really stable under the surface of things, and hasn't been for quite a long time.
Yet Occasion-Cortex says debt doesn't matter ("modern monetary theory") and hence we should borrow, borrow, borrow to hand out money, money, money to those who haven't earned it and don't deserve it.
On one hand you say the Government is not to blame - yet don't note that tens or hundreds of BILLIONS were given BY THE GOVERNMENT PURPOSELY to corporations...
Corporations do not pay taxes. People pay taxes. Corporations merely collect & forward taxes in the same way a retailer collects & forwards sales tax.
I realize you never studied economics - but since this is an economics forum, I'll try to help you understand.
One of the fundamental lessons of economics is that the entity that bears the statutory burden of a tax has nothing to do with where the burden of that tax ultimately falls. "Statutory burden" means the entity that by law must fill out a tax form & send it off to the IRS (when talking about the Federal Income Tax).
Any statutory burden of a tax on a corporation is allocated as follows:
X% is borne by customers in the form of prices higher than they otherwise would be
Y% is borne by employees in the form of total compensation (and hours worked) lower than they otherwise would be
Z% is borne by business owners (shareholders) in the form of profits lower than they otherwise would be
...where X+Y+Z=1.0 (that is, X%+Y%+Z%=100.0%)
Sooo... corporations merely collect & forward tax revenue to the IRS. The burden of that statutory tax is always allocated to a combination of customers, employees, and business owners (shareholders). To the extent a corporation is able to minimize a tax burden, that just means customers didn't have to pay a higher price, employees get paid more (and work more), and business owners (shareholders) make more profit.
There quite literally is no place else for the tax to flow: it must go to a combination of the three.
I may not of done the clearest job explaining this concept. If you didn't understand me, here are a few hyperlinks that you can follow to get more detail or perhaps a better explanation.
The implication is clear: There was no handout to corporations, as corporations don't pay the tax to begin with (only people do).
Perhaps you dislike the idea of business owners keeping more of their profits... but remember who the primary shareholders of corporations are: public sector union pension plans. Regardless if we're talking about large Fortune 500 companies in aggregate, small Russell 2000 companies, or the aggregate of all publicly traded corporations in the Wilshire 5000, the majority of stock is owned by public sector union pension plans, private sector pension plans, individual savers via their 401K and IRA funds, and people saving for retirement or their kids' college educations.
Yet Occasion-Cortex says debt doesn't matter ("modern monetary theory") and hence we should borrow, borrow, borrow to hand out money, money, money to those who haven't earned it and don't deserve it.
IMO the broad middle class needs a boost. Wage stagnation for decades. IMO they have earned it and deserve it. Deficits have gone to the rich. We need to direct them toward our middle class.
HC, infrastructure, education are 3 biggies.
Simply lowering Medicare to age 50-55 would be the easiest first move.
Yet Occasion-Cortex says debt doesn't matter ("modern monetary theory") and hence we should borrow, borrow, borrow to hand out money, money, money to those who haven't earned it and don't deserve it.
She is just as wrong as the King of Debt who believes the same.....other than the fact that the current admin feels the money should not go for solving problems, but instead to rich people and corporations.
But who do you expect more out of - a lowly young 2 year Rep or an entire POTUS Administration and their Congress (that passed the tax cuts, blew up the deficit, etc).
I often wonder - with good reason - whether most Americans watched the many episodes of Sesame Street which ingrained the basics of life...specifically
"one of these things is not like the other".
This is the very foundation of the current "know nothing whataboutism".
I ask you - as a person with "Rational" in their own self title, is $100 like $100,000? Is one of 438 quick come and go Reps the same as an entire Admin and actual laws costing 10's of trillions?
Surely you know the difference? What I "believe" or say means nothing in relation to actual things DONE or not done. Isn't this the basis of Rationalities?
IMO the broad middle class needs a boost. Wage stagnation for decades. IMO they have earned it and deserve it. Deficits have gone to the rich. We need to direct them toward our middle class.
HC, infrastructure, education are 3 biggies.
Simply lowering Medicare to age 50-55 would be the easiest first move.
Can't do any of that without whittling down the Security State to size and raising taxes, something I (as a fairly big taxpayer) agree with heartily.
We are effectively choking ourselves.
I'd put quite a bit of stock in those who claim we are at "end stage capitalism" because the system does not scale. It was reliant on unlimited resources, cheap and slave labor and now...unlimited debt.
Only structural changes can possibly help this. The first among them is probably universal health coverage, which will free people up to innovate more and prosper. Infrastructure and education are big time.....
So, we are in agreement BUT, you cannot get there in small steps. Can't happen because all the separate forces working against this (Security State, Medical Corporations, etc.) won't let it happen.
Skepticism regarding data isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Always suspect the data. Make those presenting it prove their basis for it. (On the simplest level, ignore any poll that doesn't fully explain the methodology, so that anyone with two brain cells to rub together can judge the conclusions's worth. On the other end, remain suspicious of data summaries that rely on more levels of cooked data than a haute-cuisine entree.)
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At the same time, I think focusing on the administration is not helpful.
What part of "I don't think it's a significant factor" did you misread? At most, government stats right now are being honestly generated using outdated formulas, with the unavoidable gloss of getting past senior officials who are so grossly incompetent and politically motivated that unpleasant truths get polished off.
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Originally Posted by mysticaltyger
America has kept its head in the sand about its economic problems for decades now. All we do is cut taxes and / or raise spending. But we never fix the underlying systemic problems.
Politically popular and expedient is usually at direct odds with necessity and importance. (And I do not confine this to the current administration, not by a long shot.)
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Originally Posted by RationalExpectations
You have that bass-ackward. The economic policies of the prior administration were disastrous. The prior administration viewed business as an necessary evil source of tax revenue rather than as the principle engine of economic prosperity. The current administration has been the best in modern history with respect to the economy, including recognizing that China has been engaged in economic warfare against us for decades.
Well... nothing really there to dispute except the underlying idea that the last admin was awrful and the current one is all sharp and savvy. Both are BS. There are far more forms of warfare than spewing tweets and issuing scads of useless and counterproductive tariffs, and I can't think of an administration in recent decades that hasn't worked to contain China's economic aggression.
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You've just been nominated for the 2019 Understatement of the Year Award.
Why, thanks. However, anyone who thinks I think I'm some mad positivist simply isn't paying attention, so even mockly-accusing me of a negative outlook just means you are.
We're facing some nasty crap in the next few decades, and most of it isn't even in the headlines yet.
I'd put quite a bit of stock in those who claim we are at "end stage capitalism" because the system does not scale. It was reliant on unlimited resources, cheap and slave labor and now...unlimited debt.
Only structural changes can possibly help this.
Capitalism should and will survive. The doomcryers are those who benefited from the last 30 years of nearly cancerous, unchecked growth of capitalist practice, the result of as many decades of the right screaming about small government and deregulation and putting the all-holy Business! (may blessings and prosperity be upon it) ahead of every other concern.
Time to beat big C (capitalism, not cancer) back into its cage, where it's a useful economic basis and not some kind of pillaging invader. But yes, significant structural changes are needed, and soon to now.
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Politically popular and expedient is usually at direct odds with necessity and importance. (And I do not confine this to the current administration, not by a long shot.)
