Tag Archives: obama

Obama to miss his “Reagan” moment

By Andrew Busch | Published: January 13, 2011

Friday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is scheduled to meet with corporate CFOs to discuss changing the current tax structure that is inefficient at best and job killing at worst. This meeting is specifically going to address the corporate tax structure and comes after President Obama’s fiscal reform commission recommended cutting the rate from 35% to 25%. The 35% rate is the highest amongst the major G20 nations.

Unfortunately, it may be just a dog and pony show. According to the Hill, Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser, acknowledged Wednesday that a push to overhaul the nation’s tax codes … …READ MORE

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NJ vs IL: Which Path for the US?

By Andrew Busch | Published: January 12, 2011

At 1:20 AM CT, the Illinois Senate passed a controversial deficit reduction plan to address the massive state red ink. By a vote of 30-29, they increased individual taxes from 3% to 5% and they increased the corporation tax rate from 4.8% to 7%. Now, the effective corporate tax rate is 9.5%. The law is expected to raise $6.5 billion a year. Illinois needs to patch a $15 billion gap in their budget, including $8 billion in overdue bills.

The only significant Illinois spending change was to limit future increases to 2% annually. They skipped a $1 billion a year … …READ MORE

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US next in line to bailout out Europe?

By Andrew Busch | Published: January 11, 2011

Today, Japanese Finance Minister Noda said that Japan would use its existing euro foreign exchange reserves to buy a large portion of the bonds issued by the European Financial Stability Fund. “There is a plan for the euro zone to jointly issue a large amount of bonds late this month to raise funds to assist Ireland. It’s appropriate for Japan to make a contribution as a leading nation to increase trust in the deal. We want to buy more than 20 percent.”

Japan joins China in pledging to buy European debt to quell the uncertainty surrounding the sovereign debt and … …READ MORE

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5 things you need to know today:

By Andrew Busch | Published: January 3, 2011

1. There’s a way, just a ? of the will: There are a couple of early articles out broaching the topic of whether firms will begin hiring. The WSJ takes the path of how much money is on the sidelines for large corporations and how this may be used to increase employment. Bloomberg tacks with a focus on small firms improving sales, but how they are staying lean by using temporary help longer rather than adding full time employees. Without job growth, the US economy slides into perdition in the 2nd half of this year.
2. China eases restrictions for … …READ MORE

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5 Things U Need 2 Know 2Day

By Andrew Busch | Published: December 13, 2010

With the holidays fast approaching, here are the top 5 for the week.

1. China’s inflation is soaring, but China didn’t raise interest rates. As rumored, China’s CPI came in smokin’ hot at 5.1% and was a 28 month high for the nation. (PPI was up 6.1%.) Food was the big driver of higher costs and was up 11.7% in the month. History buffs know that the last political change in China occurred due to runaway inflation and a rising up of the population against the incumbent politicos. The good news is that the PBOC (People’s Bank of China) did … …READ MORE

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Blinder & Zandi: Our Stimulus Worked!

By Andrew Busch | Published: July 28, 2010

The NYT reports today the findings of two Keynesian economists on the policy prescriptions they gave to solve the economic crisis. It worked! Honestly, can anyone argue that $862 billion of spending won’t help? Actually, they lump the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency lending and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve, and the Obama administration’s fiscal stimulus program all together to say that it all worked.

The better analysis would’ve extended the thought to: what are the costs and what are the benefits of these programs? Also, what would’ve been the costs and benefits of a … …READ MORE

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UK Plans, US Promises

By Andrew Busch | Published: June 8, 2010

In an extension of “The-guy-in-charge-made-a-mess-of-things”, Fitch ratings agency released their first report on the UK since Cameron took over and it wasn’t pretty. Fitch said, “….the scale of the UK’s fiscal challenge is formidable and warrants a strong medium term consolidation strategy – including a faster pace of deficit reduction than set out in the April 2010 Budget….However, the rise in public debt ratios since 2008 is faster than any other AAA rated sovereign and the primary balance adjustment required to stabilize debt is among the highest of advanced countries.”

What’s really great is that the UK wants to be … …READ MORE

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FRR Extend or Pretend

By Andrew Busch | Published: April 23, 2010

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid announced a motion to proceed for April 26th which will need 60 votes to bring cloture and begin debate. Like the health care bill, the Democrats will need one Republican to cross over to their side for this to happen. While the two sides are moving closer and closer, there is tremendous pressure being brought to bear on the Republicans from President Obama’s frequent appearances and speeches to Sen. Dodd’s appearances on CNBC and on NBC Meet the Press this weekend. One major issue I’d like to see David Gregory discuss is bailout authority. Dodd … …READ MORE

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Solving Gridlock and the Deficit

By Andrew Busch | Published: February 17, 2010

The Washington is broken chatter is in hyper-drive out of DC with the announcement by Senator Evan Bayh (D, IN) that he is retiring. Bayh was particularly critical of the partisan wrangling and animosity currently on display on Capitol Hill. Bayh stated that he loved serving the citizens of Indiana, but hated the process of making law in the Senate.

Besides making the 2010 mid-term elections a bit tougher for Democrats to retain their large majorities, the comments Bayh made on CBS’s Early Show were particularly damaging. “If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to … …READ MORE

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Ultimate Economic Mixed Metaphor: The Obama Budget

By Andrew Busch | Published: February 1, 2010

Today, President Obama holds a press conference to discuss the details of his 2011 budget. According to the press release, here are the key facts:
Overall 2011 Spending: $3.834 trillion.
2011 Discretionary Spending: $1.415 trillion.
2011 Projected Deficit: $1.267 trillion or 8.3 percent of GDP (down from $1.556 trillion or 10.6 percent of GDP in 2010).
10-year Deficit Reduction: $1.2 trillion, excluding war savings.
Tax Cuts: More than $300 billion in the next 10 years for individuals, families, and businesses.
The White House fact sheet also contains these highlights: “The Budget includes $100 billion for immediate job-creating investments in small … …READ MORE

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