-
Citigroup's Shareholders Stand Up for the 99.9 Percent
Tweet Share on Facebook April 20, 2012 Comment (1)Eileen Appelbaum is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research
In a wake-up call to corporate boards across the United States, Citigroup's shareholders recently took advantage of the new "say-on-pay" provisions of the Dodd-Frank law to vote down CEO Vikram Pandit's $15 million pay package. Shareholders have been surprisingly quiet as corporate executives, investment bankers, and investment fund managers have captured a huge and rapidly growing slice of corporate profits. The massive increase in inequality in the United States over the past three decades as the nation's gains in productivity have gone to further enrich the top 1 percent has been well-documented. Less well known is that the lion's share of those income gains have gone to the 0.1 percent at the tippy top. The shareholders at Citigroup have said, "Enough!"
-
The Advantages of a Traditional On-Campus MBA Experience
Tweet Share on Facebook April 20, 2012 CommentPaul Danos is dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
The great business schools of the world have long traditions of putting groups of smart students together on campus with thought-leading professors and fostering a concentrated and intense period of learning. The campus and all of its trimmings is very important for that special chemistry to occur: One gets knowledge from a master, a new network of outstanding leaders, new inspiration and values, and takes deep dives into the inner-workings of a field with an expert. The prime example of that kind of learning experience is the classic two-year, full-time MBA program at a top business school.
-
The Pain of Tax Day Is Only Getting Worse
Tweet Share on Facebook April 20, 2012 Comment (4)Mike Whalen is the president and CEO of Heart of America Group and a member of the Job Creators Alliance.
This week, millions of Americans were painfully reminded of just how much of their hard-earned money goes to fund Uncle Sam's spending addiction. Tax Day was on Tuesday, April 17, the deadline for filing taxes for 2012. As the Heritage Foundation points out, April 17 was also Tax Freedom Day: the day when Americans finally earn enough income to pay off the bill for all federal, state, and local taxes for the year. It was four days later than last year, due to higher taxes, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
-
Lessons from Latin America: Antipoverty Efforts Can Promote Growth
Tweet Share on Facebook April 20, 2012 CommentRobert Hahn is director of economics at Oxford's Smith School, chief economist at the Legatum Institute, and a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. Peter Passell is a senior fellow at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica and economics adviser to the Legatum Institute. They co-founded Regulation2point0.org, a web portal on economic regulation.
Everybody enjoys a feel-good story. And for economists, anyway, the latest data on income inequality in Latin America fits that description very well. After decades in which the income divide in this most divided of regions only seemed to grow wider, the process has abruptly reversed. What's more, the reasons for the reversal, as explained by Giovanni Cornia of the University of Florence and the United Nations University, suggest that governments in other rapidly developing regions aren't quite as powerless to lean against the global winds of inequality as the conventional wisdom suggests.
-
Government Economic Intervention Made America Great
Tweet Share on Facebook April 19, 2012 CommentThis week, the "Rebuild America Act" was introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin. This comprehensive bill aims to help American manufacturers compete and help young people get the education they need. It calls for rebuilding roads and bridges, improving schools and job training, and protecting U.S. companies from predatory trade practices.
-
The House Republicans' Head Scratching Economics
Tweet Share on Facebook April 19, 2012 Comment (1)Chad Stone is chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Whether you worry about the sluggish recovery, budget deficits, or widening inequality, you should be scratching your head at what the House of Representatives is up to this week.
-
How the 'Buffett Rule' Has Already Hurt the Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2012 Comment (8)Joseph Mason is the Moyse/LBA Chair of Banking at the Ourso School of Business at Louisiana State University and a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
One topic of concern in the recent news is whether President Obama will succeed in raising U.S. income tax rates. (In fact, one of the first tests of that agenda will take place Monday with the Senate scheduled to vote on the so-called "Buffett Rule.") Of course, it is still too soon to tell, but as tax season rolls around we can look to coming tax collections to get some insight.
-
Property Casualty Insurance: A Case Study in Federalism
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2012 Comment (2)David Sampson is the president and CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. He served in the George W. Bush Administration as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce and as assistant secretary of Commerce for Economic Development.
Recently, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While the focus was primarily on the individual mandate and the application of the Commerce Clause, the fundamental debate surrounding the healthcare law is really about the proper size and scope of the federal government.
-
The Three Ways 'Old Money' Holds on to Its Riches
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2012 Comment (11)James Rickards is a hedge fund manager in New York City and the author of Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis from Portfolio/Penguin. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesGRickards.
While America claims to be a class-free society, the opposite often seems to be the case. Americans are obsessed with social status in all its forms whether based on celebrity, artistic or athletic accomplishment, or just plain money. Although royalty is not legal in America, our economic royalty including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are as highly regarded as any English duke or earl.
-
The Gimmicks Government Uses to Tax You
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2012 Comment (2)Antony Davies is an affiliated senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and an associate professor of economics at Duquesne University.
To make tax day more fun, let's replace the tax code with a national lottery. The IRS can issue scratch-offs to each household. Winners get rebates and losers have to cut the IRS a check. The tax code is so complex that most people already have no idea whether they will get money back or owe the government more. From the average taxpayer's perspective, tax day is already a lottery—just one that takes hours to play and requires that you hire an accountant to scratch off the numbers.
