Hot and Cold

Cactus at Angry Bear comes in with a good Post, but states there are some Comment suggestions that Congress may have more to do with it than do Presidents. My advise to Cactus would be to align real Tax rates (yearly Tax Revenues/GDP) with Changes in real GDP per capita. Further areas of investigation is how Total Tax Revenues did vary year to year (what was responsible for the alterations), and how they did affect real GDP per capita. Common Economic Thought states that Tax Revenues reductions should raise real GDP per capita, though I suspicion Tax reductions may not be beneficial in all Cases, or actually in very many cases. Reality states that Government Services must be eventually Paid, and shifting Payment forward may produce some economic generation immediately (on the Principle of making you Money work for you). The trouble resides in the fact that shifting forward Payment causes Interest payments from the Present forward, and raises future Government Liabilities while stripping out future economic incentives. Does the immediate economic gain make up for the future economic loss?

Frederic Sautet may in many ways be my ideological opposite, both in conceptualism and manner of approach to economic activities. This article represents one of those areas where We are joined on the issue. People overdraw human impact upon the environment, and to great measure. Human activity might finally attain some 20% alteration of World environmental Temperament, and even this is doubtful; there are too many natural elements of greater amplitude to inhibit massive human degeneration of the ecological system. My Return to the 1970s as inspiration: I still believe this World is beset with overPopulation. I once stated the Earth was optimally built to house a human population of a billion people, and I have seen no evidence to alter that Estimate. Mayhaps the ecological damage created by People will reduce the total Population–do I sound like a Nazi euthanasia environmentalist?

Dean Baker highlights the real intent of Trade Policy in this quick Post. That intent is to reduce American Wages to Worldwide levels, which would mean a substantial reduction in the American style of life; something never discussed by Devotees of Business Profits uber Alles. The humor behind this for an old Workingman like myself derives from the knowledge that foreign wages will rise far more rapidly than American Wages will fall, and eventual Business Profits will fall due to the added Production Costs coming from overall expensive Wage Labor. An element to relate to earlier portions of this Post, Business taxes will be much higher in the future, both in nominal and real terms of taxation, because of the current Business push to devaluate the Dollar through collection of national debt. Snidley Whiplash foiled again! lgl