I don't love all of ProPublica's analysis on billionaire taxes, but the core true point is too much of the wealthiest Americans' income isn't showing up on tax returns. We can fix that, and Joe Biden is focused on closing two loopholes that would do so. businessinsider.com/propublicas-bi…
We should repeal rules that let you avoid tax on gains by holding assets until you die, and stop letting rich people double-deduct charitable donations. And if you do those things, you can set higher capital gains tax rates and still stop avoidance. businessinsider.com/propublicas-bi…
The charitable deduction thing is a little headache-inducing to understand, but the short version is, if you give away appreciated stock instead of cash, you effectively get to deduct the unrealized gain twice. It makes no sense, and we can change it. businessinsider.com/propublicas-bi…
This is on stronger political, administrative and constitutional ground than a wealth tax. It's easier to implement than mark-to-market taxation, which would swamp the IRS in valuation disputes. And Dems can demand it when the TCJA expirations hit in '25. businessinsider.com/propublicas-bi…
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I talked to my former colleagues at New York Magazine about how I’m filling out my mayoral ranked choice ballot. Read it (along with many others’) here: curbed.com/2021/06/nyc-ra…
Also, Joe Lhota is a Democrat now? 👀
I wrote at greater length for Insider this weekend about what I like so
much about why I like Kathryn Garcia and why I, apparently like Joe Lhota, prefer her for mayor. businessinsider.com/kathryn-garcia…
Twice as likely to test positive if tested, but also nearly three times less to get tested. The way Axios presents these data is misleading. The meaning is not obvious; many COVID cases were never tested/confirmed, so I wouldn’t infer mask wearers *more* likely to get COVID.
This piece needs to be fixed, the text doesn’t match the chart.
Of course there’s all sorts of other confounds. Maybe one reason people wore masks regularly outside the home is they had a higher baseline level of COVID exposure. Mask wearers also may have been more careful in general. You can’t really infer from observations like this.
The media handled this poorly but I think the even worse performance is in scientific and health policy institutions, which showed an even more stifling ideological monoculture than the press did.
You could see this in, for example, the ACIP proposal not to recommend an age-based approach to vaccine phasing, even though it would save more lives, because of “equity” concerns. Whatever woke nonsense is ongoing in press is much farther along in the health bureaucracy.
And then you had the bullshit about how, because ACIP hadn’t finalized the recommendation, it was improper to discuss it or something. Total “shut up, they explained” nonsense.
The thing I don’t get about bottle service — besides the astronomical price — is, if I’m at a fancy establishment, having very expensive drinks, shouldn’t I at least be getting them in the form of properly made martinis or manhattans or whatever?