The Unbroken Window

As if the guys in Albany were elected just to prove everything I say on this site correct: State tax officials, under orders from cash-strapped Albany to ramp up their audit and compliance efforts, have begun to enforce one of the more obscure distinctions within the state’s sales tax law. In New York, the sale [...]

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Well, we’re not allowed anymore. Another dispatch from the tyrannical state: Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The law, signed last week [...]

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Quote #1 “‘Our message to them is to work with this law, not against it; don’t try and take advantage of it or we will work with state authorities and gather the authority we have to stop rate gouging” Quote #2 “They are not going to stop us in the plan, which is to give [...]

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When du Pont developed cellophane (you know, plastic wrap) it was prosecuted by the Department of Justice under the terms of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Why? Because after spending millions of dollars in R&D to develop this new product, it was able to increase sales from $0 to $100 million per year over a 20 [...]

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The now signed into law ObamaCare bill gives the IRS an additional $10 billion of your money and the mandate to hire 16,000 more agents to enforce the new taxes and fees in the new law. Have a nice day.

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Intrade seems to indicate the ObamaCare is more likely to become reality than not. Here is a quote from a friend of a friend: If they can consider the bill “deemed to have been passed” without passing the bill, We should consider our income tax “deemed to be paid” without actually sending a check Sadly, [...]

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Per capita GDP in the United States is roughly $47,000. Per capita personal income is about $39,880. Let’s think about the kind of tax system we have in the U.S. What kind of effective marginal tax rates do you think a family faces that has per capita income below half of per capita GDP in [...]

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Fred McChesney illustrates another special privilege granted to the few at the expense of the many. Not only do public employees get paid wages higher than their private counterparts (uncompetitively), not only are many public employees producing things of little value, or things that could be produced more efficiently and effectively by private interests, but [...]

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Mark Perry illustrates how easy it is to be “charitable” when it is not your own money you are giving away: 1. Between 1998 and 2006, the Bidens’ adjusted gross income (AGI) averaged $236,000 per year, and their average annual charitable contributions averaged just $283, or only $5.44 per week. That compares to an average [...]

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Barack O’Bush on the Christmas present we are all getting from the wonderful do-gooders in DC: The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill would extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans who lack it. It also imposes new regulations to curb abuses of the insurance industry, and the president noted one last-minute addition [...]

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