Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Pre And Post SALT Deduction Tax Cap Chart Shows Wealthy Benefit The Most From SALT Deduction

From Reason, "Eat The Rich? House Democrats Plan To Pass Huge Tax Break for Wealthy Homeowners. The party that's calling for huge tax increases on the wealthy is about to hand wealthier Americans a big tax break that will add to the federal budget." by Eric Boehm:
Democrats are trying to sell the repeal of the SALT caps as a middle-class tax break, but historical evidence shows that it almost exclusively benefits high-earning homeowners who live in parts of the country where you must pay high taxes.
Source: reason 
"Jurisdictions with higher-income residents received more of a benefit than those with lower-income residents," Nicole Kaeding, a vice president at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy center, explained to the House Ways and Means Committee at a hearing earlier this year. "In some ways, it allowed high-tax states and localities to export their tax liabilities to taxpayers in other states, particularly low-tax, low-income states."

Friday, December 13, 2019

It’s What You Study In College - Not Where You Study That Determines Earnings After Graduation

From E21, "For Most College Students, It’s What You Study—Not Where You Study" by Preston Cooper:
[H]ow much students earn after graduating college—where a student goes matters far less than what she chooses to study.

That is one of the principal takeaways from the updated College Scorecard, a federal dataset that reveals how much students at thousands of colleges and universities can expect to earn in their first year after graduation. Critically, the earnings data are now broken down by program of study, so prospective students can compare the earnings of, say, a history major and an engineering major who graduated from the same school. Not every program has data available, but statistics are mostly complete for the large public universities that enroll most of the nation’s undergraduates.

It is probably no surprise that majors like engineering, computer science, and nursing out-earn majors such as history, psychology, and English literature in the job market. At the University of Maryland-College Park, for instance, a history major can expect to earn just $29,000 in her first year after graduation, while a civil-engineering major at the same school has a median starting salary of nearly $65,000.
Source: E21

Friday, December 6, 2019

Unmeasured Illegal Activities Add Over 1 Percent To US GDP

From The Wall Street Journal, "GDP Doesn’t Include Proceeds of Crime. Should It? Sales of illegal drugs would have added $111 billion to U.S. gross domestic product, according to estimate" by Jo Craven McGinty:
When the U.S. calculates its gross domestic product, it only includes things that are legal. But if the wares of drug dealers, pimps, bookies and other black-market denizens were included, the GDP would expand by more than 1%, according to one estimate.
***
Illegal Activities GDP Effect
Source: The Wall St Journal
***
... Canada has found that accounting for illicit sales of cannabis alone would add around 0.4% to its GDP. The U.K. has estimated that prostitution and illegal drugs represent around 0.4% of its GDP. And in the U.S., Rachel Soloveichik, a research economist with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, has estimated that in 2017, illegal activities would have added more than 1% to the GDP. She presented her analysis last month at the IMF Statistical Forum.

Monday, December 2, 2019

My Comment To WSJ, "How To Fix College Admission": My Answer Is, "Increase Supply"

Highly rated, highly prestigious colleges and universities deny admission to numerous undergraduate applicants who are as qualified as those that are accepted. Qualified applicants demand for admission to the top colleges exceeds the supply of available openings. In most other unregulated situations of unfilled demand, the producer of the service or product, or competitors, would increase the supply to meet the excess demand. Historical prestige and third party college rankings create a barrier that prevent newcomers and lower ranked colleges from competing for the applicants to the top tier schools. As I suggest in the following Wall Street Journal comment, prestige colleges and universities should expand geographically in the US to meet the needs of the excess demand of qualified applicants.

My published comment to The Wall Street Journal, "How to Fix College Admissions: Getting into a top school is a stressful, unpredictable process. Here are 10 ways to make it fairer and more transparent."
Increase supply to meet demand. Top ranked universities and colleges need to geographically expand their brand names. Put campuses across the US to increase enrollment. If their [sic] were multiple campuses across the US that were affiliated or under direct control of top ranked universities, then many more applicants to top schools could get degrees from top ranked schools. There are many qualified PhD's in and outside the US who cannot currently get university teaching or tenure positions. Use them to create prestigious schools across the US. Like any other product, there are winners with big market share and prestige and losers with low prestige and [low] market share. One way would be to eliminate the not for profit status of colleges and universities. A profit motive would force schools to expand their brands across the US, to expand their market share and to meet he [the] needs of a wider range of students, e.g. imagine a Harvard community college 2 year degree in every state.