The Economics Review

Eric Mason is the Chief Financial Officer for the city of Quincy, Massachusetts, a TEDx speaker and Economist, overseeing a $350 million budget and $500 million debt portfolio. In this episode, we speak about taxation, education and affordable housing in the city of Quincy, and Mason's approach to economic policy.

Philip Cross is a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, previously having spent 36 years at Statistics Canada specializing in macroeconomics. He is the former Chief Economic Analyst at Statistics Canada, and was responsible for ensuring quality and coherency of all major economic statistics.

California's housing crisis is reaching its apex, with the state hitting homelessness rates nearly double that of New York. The housing crisis in the Golden State was spurred on by years of bad policies and underbuilding. The passage of two new bills, SB 9 and SB 10, hold promise for those keen to increase the availability of affordable housing. But not everyone is happy about the new construction these laws will allow.

Labor unions have been an essential part of building a safe, strong American workforce. But with the enaction of the National Labor Relations Act, The government eliminated essential checks on union power. Whilst a 2018 Supreme Court ruling resulted in a tentative step toward loosening government protections, there is still much work to be done if unions are to be subjected to proper oversight, to ensure they operate in the best interest of their workers.

This episode of The Economic Review discusses where the burden of corporate taxes actually falls.·        A brief history of corporate tax in America·        The burden of corporate tax on workers and consumers·        How the burden is divided amongst consumers, workers and shareholders·        Why Congress is pushing for an increase the corporate tax rate

In this episode of The Economic Review, I examined the possibility of HSA-expansion in healthcare reform. Highlights include:
-A look at how HSAs are beneficial to HDHP policy holders
-The current beliefs and attitudes of U.S. adults toward HSAs
-How HSAs could provide a bipartisan path to healthcare reform
-The effect expanding HSAs would have on the healthcare system, including decreased costs

Dr. Brian Lee Crowley is the founder and Managing Director of the ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, which is Canada's only truly national public policy think tank. He holds a doctorate in political economy from the London School of Economics and is a four time winner of the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher Award. It is truly my pleasure to welcome Dr Crowley to the show. 

We’ve seen plenty of downturn in the economy over the last year. Good news was at a premium with historic job losses and unemployment claims. Traditional jobs, office jobs, labor jobs; everyone suffered with inconsistency and uncertainty as it seemed like the normal lives they were used to would never come back. And when they needed some time off or a way to destress, they opened an app and turned to the gig economy.

Ending the filibuster is a bad idea. In 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, James Madison—who is often referred to as the Father of the Constitution—described the Senate as “a necessary fence” which would protect “the people against their rulers” and from “the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led.” 

On Saturday, it was announced that the G7 had agreed to back a new 15 percent global minimum tax on multinational corporations. There are multiple problems with the G7’s latest proposal. Abroad, this would severely hamper the ability of developing nations to compete in the global marketplace. 

When Socialism is discussed in an American political context, the Scandinavian model is often looked upon as the ideal modern interpretation of Marxist ideals. When examining the Scandinavian model thoroughly, one tends to notice that the economic system in Nordic countries is entirely different than that of which is proposed by socialist politicians in the USA.

We often hear from politicians, ‘healthcare is a right’ when advocating for a single-payer system, but if declaring something a right automatically makes it appear, why not say that everyone has the right to a house or a car? Rather, when politicians declare healthcare a right, they mean that the government should provide healthcare for everyone.

As you’ve all probably heard, Social Security is on a collision course with bankruptcy. Increasing life expectancies, declining birth rates, and widespread mismanagement has driven one of the most secure, well funded and reliable social programs into a disastrous shortfall.

As we have seen over the last week President Biden has made climate change a major focus of his campaign. The framework for much of his proposed legislation rests on the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal is unique because of its radical nature, causing conflicting opinions, even among democrats.

In lieu of the rapidly expanding national debt, it is essential that we take a look at one of the major tenets of the federal budget responsible for a large part of said debt, the welfare state. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.” Over 50 years and $23 trillion later, the poverty rate remains almost identical to what it was in the sixties.

It’s no secret that the United States has a ridiculously complicated tax code. It’s generally accepted that the tax code is 4 million words long, or about 5 times as long as the Bible, and growing exponentially. The tax code changed 4680 times between 2001 and 2012, or about once per day on average. Clearly, we have a problem. Having said that, today I want to make the case to you for a flat tax system.

President Biden has just unveiled a new $2.3 Trillion ‘infrastructure’ plan, but a shockingly large portion of this bill is actually unrelated to infrastructure. The plan includes massive subsidies for corporations as well as state and local governments and comes right after the administration’s proposed increase in the corporate tax rate.

We’ve all heard about the student debt crisis, but leave it to Biden and the Democrats to find the worst possible solution. Student loans are undeniably a weight on the economy, but simply ‘canceling’ existing debt does nothing to address the underlying problem. The US Education Secretary, Miguel Cardona, recently announced that the Biden administration has forgiven the loans of roughly 72,000 borrowers worth $1 Billion

Following the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus act, the Biden administration is planning what would be the first major federal tax hike in almost three decades. This proposition, which has been on the horizon since his early campaign days, would significantly raise the corporate tax rate as well as individual rates on high earners. 

After the senate removed the minimum wage increase to $15 in the latest coronavirus relief bill, the debate over whether or not minimum wage should be increased has gained a lot of traction. However, the minimum wage as a concept, especially at the federal level is deeply flawed. Listen on to find out about economics behind a minimum wage increase.

The new $1.9 Trillion dollar Coronavirus relief bill is packed full with expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes.