Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Entrepreneur.com–While income, capital gains, and estate taxes are key concerns, watch out for state taxes. New York State is considering a millionaire’s tax—something tried in New Jersey with mixed results.
“People picked up and moved,” Jack Meola, a tax attorney and partner at Amper Politziner & Mattia says of the New Jersey experience. […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

DALLAS–Americans can maintain good jobs and high living standards by exporting their services to the world, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ 2007 annual report essay. U.S. companies are prepared to meet the world’s growing demand for services, Dallas Fed President and CEO Richard Fisher says in an opening letter. […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Thanks to Larry Kudlow for mentioning Carpe Diem last night on CNBC, he featured the graph above from this CD post on mortgage resets (graph courtesy of Dennis Gartman).
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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Number of FDIC-insured banks in U.S.: 8,533

Number of FDIC-insured banks that have failed in 2008: 2
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Submitted by unsettling economics
Norris, Floyd. 2008. “Profits Plunge, Buybacks Don’t.” (7 April). New York Times Blog http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/
“The corporate love of buying back stock — which Wall Street encourages as much as it can — reached new heights late last year. Standard & Poor’s, which has been tracking buyback data for the S.&P. 500 since 1998, […]

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Submitted by unsettling economics
Today’s Wall Street Journal also has a piece that mentions the aging of the U.S. airlines’ planes. I wrote a book almost 20 years ago that discussed how Keynes neglected replacement investment.  Keynes, Investment Theory and the Economic Slowdown: The Role of Replacement Investment and q‑Ratios (NY and London: St. Martin’s and […]

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Submitted by unsettling economics
Regarding the question savings glut versus investment scarcity, a week ago, I wrote to the Washington Post journalist, Steve Mufson, asking how long he thought that Exxon’s stock buybacks exceeded real investment. He told me he thought it was as long as he was covering the subject — a couple of years. […]

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Submitted by Econbrowser
From Haver.com:
Michigan Consumer Sentiment Down Yet Again
April 11, 2008
By Tom Moeller

The preliminary reading of April consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan fell another 9.1% m/m to 63.2. Consensus expectations had been for a lesser decline to 69.0. The decline dropped sentiment to near its lowest level since 1982.

The expectations component accounted for […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Annual Growth, Commercial Bank Loans, to 4/14/08
Media hysteria over the mortgage crisis is almost certainly misleading countless people about prospects for the real economy.
The focus of the gloomy economic news is on a “credit crisis” or “financial crisis.” Yet postwar US financial crises have never resulted in economic disaster. Think of […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
On economic grounds, there’s no reason to reject the Colombia free trade agreement. Colombia’s exports already enter the U.S. market duty-free under the 1991 Andean Trade Preference Act. Meanwhile, many U.S. exports to Colombia face stiff tariffs — up to 35% on autos, 15% on tractors and 10% on computers — most […]

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Submitted by Businomics Blog
I recently posted a comment to the effect that banking markets have calmed, as evidenced by the return to normal spreads between LIBOR and the Fed Funds rate.  Now the Wall Street Journal has a story (subscription required) suggesting that LIBOR may not be accurately reported these days, as banks decline to […]

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Submitted by A Dash of Insight
At “A Dash” we have frequently cited the work of Doug Kass, a colleague at TheStreet.com.  Even before we contributed to RealMoney, we were paying customers to get Doug’s work.   We found it to be a source of trading profits, as long as you understood the perspective.
We were therefore a […]

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