Fred Siegmund

Taxes, Entitlements and the 47%

During the Presidential campaign, candidate Mitt Romney had a speech secretly recorded where he told listeners that he could not expect to get votes from the 47 percent of tax payers who do not pay federal income taxes. In the speech, Romney characterized that group of income-tax-free Americans as being “dependent on the government” and […]

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The Benefit and The Burden: Tax Reform, Why We Need It and What it Will Take

In this week’s column, Fred Siegmund reviews “The Benefit and The Burden: Tax Reform, Why We Need It and What it Will Take” by Bruce Bartlett. In the opening sentences of the Introduction, author Bruce Bartlett tells readers the Federal tax code needs regular attention like a garden needs weeding. Even though the present weedy tangle […]

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The Fiscal Cliff and Social Security

Post-election analysis has started to turn to discussion of economic issues put off before the election. Health care expansion will go forward and tax and budget disputes will be settled by default with the fiscal cliff or by compromise in the Congress. A recent article by Robert J. Samuelson [“It’s the Welfare State, Stupid,” Washington […]

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When’s the Right Time to Get a Master’s Degree?

There were 693,025 MA degree graduates for the year ending June 2010, the last year of complete data. The MA is still relatively small compared to 1.6 million BA degree candidates, but the MA degree has the highest growth rate of degrees including the AA, BA and Ph.D. From 1990 to 2010, that growth was […]

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Performance, Job Pay and Teachers

Growing opinion from outside of teaching expects teachers to produce a quality product measured by student test scores. The use of test scores in teacher evaluation and the use of test scores was the primary contention for teachers in the Chicago teacher strike. Manufactured products fail as a result of defective materials and workmanship, and […]

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The Follies of Gold

Many years ago, before banks, gold circulated as a medium of exchange, but it was heavy and inconvenient from the beginning. Enterprising entrepreneurs opened gold depositories where people could store their gold safely. Depositors received a paper certificate as proof of their deposit. If a depositor decided to buy a horse and wagon, he would […]

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The Economics of a City: Detroit

Detroit is a city of misery and hope. The mayor, former basketball star Dave Bing, wants to turn liabilities into assets with a plan known as the Detroit works project. His city is broke with the loss of the automobile industry and over half its population, but it apparently has nearly 40 square miles of […]

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Why are the Biggest Opponents of Obamacare Uninsured?

When I see articles about the new health care law, it almost always cites 30 million uninsured Americans, with the intent of the new law to extend affordable care to this group. The millions who have affordable care through their employer receive an immense subsidy. The employer health care subsidy is better than income. If […]

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Where Will You Work?

President Lyndon Johnson noticed the long-term decline of manufacturing jobs back in 1964, when he predicted that the nation would be capable of maintaining its present levels of production in 1975 with 20 million fewer workers*. He made the prediction during a period when automation was getting lots of attention. Calculating inflation adjusted GDP dollars […]

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Is Getting a PhD Worth It? On Jobs, Salaries and the Market

I continue to see articles describing the grim job market for those pursing and finishing PhDs. A recent article from the Washington Post (“U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there”) describes a surplus of science doctorates looking for research positions. The article uses examples of four people: a new neuroscientist yet to […]

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Who Should Be Entitled to Overtime Pay?

The New York Post recently ran a story about a Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) Sergeant named Edwin Rivera who reportedly earned more than $166,000 last year in overtime pay – more than double his base salary. They made a few comparisons of salaries that included the New York governor with a salary of $179,000. […]

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The Depressing Effects of Inequality

Millions of Americans cushioned themselves against the 2009-10 recession by doubling up in houses and apartments, according to the U. S. Census Bureau in a report released June 20, 2012. The number of adults sharing a household with family members or other individuals jumped from 17 to 18.7 percent of households from 2007 and 2010. […]

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Inside Greece’s Economic Problems, and Why It Matters to Us

Over the last 3 or 4 months, several news analysts have described the debt and deficit problems of Greece. Many of these same analysts decided to compare Greek debts and deficits to the United States. They cited data on Greece that shows a high and rising ratio of debt-to-Gross Domestic Product that increases the risk […]

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Fred Siegmund

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