Here is the 2015 update. It separates the various components of income, tax, and transfer programs across quantiles, providing a deeper picture of how they have changed. One thing that jumps out is the category that makes a difference in … Continue reading
David Henderson has comprehensive federal tax brackets (before whatever it is Congress may pass before 2017 ends) by income, courtesy of the CBO. These include payroll taxes, as well as estimated tax incidence of corporate taxes. Here’s the description … Continue reading
Using Tax Data to Measure Long Term Trends in Income Inequality makes further adjustments for the 1986 tax reform and corporate income. Unsurprisingly, this significantly reduces the increases in income inequality. Continue reading
The public debate about inequality and income growth sometimes seems entirely focused on intra-country differences, and ignores the global trend of decreasing inequality. In my reading on the subject I came across this graph, used in more than one article … Continue reading
In prior posts I’ve noted that some of the measured inequality trend is actually an artifact of where income is reported. Particularly after the 1986 tax reform, income has moved steadily from corporate returns to individual returns, exaggerating the growth … Continue reading
Adding on to my own analysis about time series trends in income tax progressivity, Professor Munger offers this analysis from the Tax Policy Center. In 2012, the top quintile of the income distribution received 52.5 percent of income and paid 68.3 percent … Continue reading
A friend points out that Brad DeLong and I aren’t far apart on ideal healthcare solutions. Actually, I’ve agreed with him on substance quite a few times, but I find it painful to read his stuff because he’s such a … Continue reading
My uncle Rod started a conversation with me on Facebook about the proposal to change benefits to a “chained CPI” basis. Along the way, our conversation ran into what I believe is a core, intractable issue with fixing our entitlement … Continue reading
First it was snoopy poop dog, now it’s Gangnam Style. I had the rare pleasure of being chewed out by that guy once.
I had not quite realized how few households pundits are talking about. I’ve railed against exhibits like this one, because they are used by people who don’t distinguish between the 1%, the 0.1% and the ridiculous 0.01% in the graph: … Continue reading