Category Archives: History

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, April 17, 2019: 

Of course the Tax Foundation doesn’t call it serfdom or slavery. They’re far too kind. Instead they simply report what they found: “Tax Freedom Day is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the year.” This year, ironically, TFD happened on Tuesday, the day after every worker’s income tax return was due. That’s five days sooner than in 2017, before Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act kicked in.

That total tax bill is enormous:

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, April 16, 2019: 

For the second year in a row, Tax Freedom Day for the average American taxpayer comes the day after he is required to file his income tax return. The year before Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act became law, Tax Freedom Day was five days later: April 21.

In 1900, Tax Freedom Day arrived on January 22.

Although slightly lower the last two years, thanks to Trump’s tax cut law, the average American worker still spends almost a third of the year (105 days) earning enough to pay all of his taxes.

And if deficit spending (future tax liability) is figured in, Tax Freedom Day wouldn’t be April 16 but May 22.

Altogether, American workers pay $5.2 trillion in taxes, more than they do for food, clothing, and housing put together.

Owing to different state income tax rates, etc., Tax Freedom Day (TFD) depends on which state one lives in. A taxpayer in Alaska, for instance,

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, April 3, 2019: 

Never letting an opportunity pass to speak to a group or in front a microphone, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has acquired a following of adoring fans along with a long list of oft-repeated quotes. Some of them reflect an abysmal understanding of history, no thanks to Boston University from which she graduated cum laude with degrees in economics and international relations but nothing in history.

A few of the more choice selections include these:

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, March 25, 2019: 

Last month this writer concluded that, if passed into law, AOC’s Green New Deal would hasten the bankruptcy of the United States of America. He noted that for all intents and purposes the U.S. is already bankrupt, but that the credit rating agencies are overlooking the obvious by keeping their top ratings on U.S. government debt.

Now it appears that this writer was wrong. According to Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic guru, “I don’t think good growth policies have to obsess [interesting word choice], necessarily, about the budget deficit.”

He apparently had been reading how Modern Monetary Theory – MMT – makes deficits irrelevant, as written by a professor in public policy and economics from an obscure university. That professor, Stephanie Kelton, at Stony Brook University, said the only thing standing in the way of spending our way into the green new world is politicians’ will to spend it:

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Sunday, March 24, 2019:  

The U.S. Treasury announced on Friday that the federal government has spent $1.8 trillion since October 1, the start of fiscal year 2019, while tax receipts were only $1.3 trillion. This leaves a deficit of a little over $500 billion.

It would have been only $489 billion, except that in the month of February the IRS began sending out refund checks, and personal and business tax returns aren’t due until April.

Only $489 billion? On an annual basis, if nothing changes, the federal government will ring up deficits of $1.2 trillion this fiscal year, pushing the national debt to over $23 trillion by October.

As The New American reported last month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that in less than 10 years the national debt will be close to $36 trillion if nothing changes.

A lot of things can change in 10 years:

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, March 6, 2019:  

For years China has been bailing out Venezuela’s failed socialist experiment. At last count, Venezuela is into China for more than $70 billion. What an irony it would be if the roles were reversed!

With Maduro’s regime on the ropes, and a new president taking the reins upon his departure, Venezuela’s vast proven crude oil reserves could easily put the country back where it was just a few years ago: one of the most prosperous in South America.

The process of China becoming Venezuela is well under way, to the point where wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs are looking for a way out. That would include Chen Tianyong, a Chinese real estate developer in Shanghai, who has already left.

He explained his reasons in a 28-page article on the internet that he titled “Why I Left China – an Entrepreneur’s Farewell Admonition.” He wrote:

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, February 22, 2019:

Once Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff presented his findings – based on “generational accounting” – his readers and students knew that the United States government was headed for bankruptcy. The numbers were so huge – $210 trillion (the amount that one generation owed to another thanks to politicians’ promises) – that there was simply no way the U.S. economy could throw off enough tax revenue to come even close to keeping them.

The latest report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reflects its tinkering around the edges of what’s owed – building sand castles on the beach while a tsunami is rapidly building just offshore.

The authors assume

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, February 4, 2019:  

Three recent polls reflect increasing acceptance of New York Democrat Congresswoman’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)’s economic worldview: The rich aren’t paying their fair share.

First, the new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released on Monday found that “76 percent of registered voters believe the wealthiest Americans should pay more in taxes.” A recent Fox News survey showed essentially the same thing: 70 percent favored raising taxes on those earning over $10 million a year, including 54 percent of Republicans.

A Hill/HarrisX poll showed 59 percent of those polled support AOC’s plan to slap a 70-percent marginal rate on income earned over $10 million a year.

And the “wealth tax” proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is favored by 61 percent of those surveyed for the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll while just 20 percent opposed it.

Such views reflect the politics of envy, revenge, and ignorance. It reflects what Senator Russell Long (who served for 15 years as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1966 to 1981) said about most people’s thinking about such proposals: “Don’t tax you. Don’t tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.”

That fellow behind the tree making $10 million or more a year is