About 7 years ago

02/22/2017 - Midnight Reads – What’s Behind the Border Tax Kabuki?

What’s Behind the Border Tax Kabuki?
– The Wall Street Journal
When it comes to the politics of tax reform, a vital principle is always to inject a big disruptive element into the mix so members of the House and Senate tax-writing committees can be assured a fundraising bonanza from threatened business and taxpayer groups. Big exporters like Boeing and GE are guaranteed to speak up in its favor because, under border adjustability, profits on sales to foreigners are tax-free. Even more deep-pocketed and numerous are the idea’s opponents like Walmart, since imports would no longer be deductible under the new corporate tax rate and would be taxed at 20%.

Trump’s Top Economic Advisors Are, Essentially, Democrats
– Quartz
President Trump’s populist economic positions stand counter to conservative orthodoxy. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that his top advisors aren’t free market, conservative stalwarts. The leftish leanings of Trump’s staff underscores how blurred the lines between Democrats and Republicans have become when it comes to economic policy.

If You Care About Food, You Need to Care About Immigration Policy
– Eater
If you care at all about food – whether fine dining restaurants, grocery stores, fast-food counters, school cafeterias, coffee shops, farmer’s markets, big-box super-centers, or backyard tomato gardens – it’s time for you to care about immigration, deportation, labor, and what it means to be legally allowed to work in America. Top to bottom, the American food system relies on immigrant labor more than any other cross-section of the economy.

How to Close a Gender Gap: Let Employees Control Their Schedules
– The New York Times
Flexibility regarding the time and place that work gets done would go a long way toward closing the gaps, economists say. Yet when people ask for it, especially parents, they can be penalized in pay and promotions. Social scientists call it the flexibility stigma, and it’s the reason that even when companies offer such policies, they’re not widely used.