Recent content by Nick59

The figure you refer to is wealth, not income -- is there something else you see to support the income claim you're making? Regardless, it looks like US wealth increased about 25%, so while *wealth* may have been greater elsewhere, it's not like the US has been left behind. Last, even if...

From the link: "By now it should be common knowledge to everyone that in American society, the top wealthiest 1 percentile controls all the political power, holds half the wealth, and pays what is claimed to be the bulk of the taxes (despite mile wide tax loopholes and Swiss bank accounts). The...

It's also a relatively complicated subject. For example, I have yet to see a standardized definition of "middle class". I suspect that the definition of it has expanded over time. What gets lost in the sauce is that it's very different comparing different bases of a definition than a static...

"Another way to look at this is that we’ve produced a great health care system for rich people, but we forgot to make most Americans rich!" Actually, we've produced a great health care system for people who get insurance through their employers. One problem I have with many gov't statistics is...

Well, I haven't, but...if all you want to do is mount the TV, it shouldn't be too difficult -- just finding the appropriate studs in the wall and mounting the supports. Where it can get trickier is if you wish to hide the cables that attach to the TV behind the wall so that you don't have an...

Well, I respectfully disagree. For example, I'm not a believer in unemployment insurance, so on the occasions in life where I was qualified to take it, I did not. That's the "no drop of rain ever accepts responsibility for the flood" defense, which again, I respectfully disagree with. If...

Curious if you put your money where your mouth was: Did you continue to pay the taxes at the rate prior to the Bush tax cut? If not, why rail against a cut only to run off with the money? Why not just continue to pay what you believe is your fair share?

Do you hold people in the lowest income quintile to this standard as well?

People always seem surprised when I tell them that people in the lowest quintile of income spend more money than it takes to be in the second lowest income quintile.

A couple of points. The $200k/$250k (single/married) threshold in 2010 is roughly equivalent in constant dollars of $162k/$202k in 2000 dollars. Do people really consider such levels as "rich"? I've heard, though of course nothing is final until any legislation is final, that the $200k/$250k...

Unfortunately, Krugman's talk is much more about politics than about economics.

What tax benefit, specifically, are you referring to?

Well, it gives the public at large the same price bounce. And many options are priced so that even with a modest price bounce they're still not in the money.

Sure, it could have been returned as a dividend, and I speculate that most shareholders (not all) would prefer to see a reduction of float over a one-off dividend. Plus, the article mentioned taking on debt to buy the stock back, so that looks to me more like a re-leveraging activity. I...

Could you clarify what you mean by this -- I'm not following.