That Liberal Media

The USA’s national debt has become a talking point recently, as commentators start to realize exactly what we’re storing up for future generations – and, if we don’t halt its seemingly inexorable acceleration fast enough, for ourselves. Right now the federal government is spending more than it earns to the tune of about $550 billion every year. There’s no mystery about where this trend is taking us – the Federal reserve are open about the fact that this “improvement” in the situation (for a couple of years after the 2008 crash the deficit was over $1 trillion a year, and by that abysmal standard today’s spending counts as an improvement) should last until about 2020, at which point steadily rising social security and Medicare costs will push the debt curve back up again.

Continue reading “United States Debt Machine (part 2)” »

If you’re a US citizen, right now you’re saddled with close to $56,000 of debt that you didn’t choose to take out, that you can’t walk away from and that has to be paid back someday at a cost that could ruin this country. That debt is close to double the average wage. It’s the cost of an imported luxury car or the deposit on a small apartment in the most expensive cities in America. And it was run up on your behalf by the federal government.

Continue reading “United States Debt Machine” »

Sometimes it seems like our politicians spend all day looking for excuses to impose new taxes, so it’s always nice to see some movement in the other direction. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it’s worth encouraging. Now it looks like New Jersey’s Republican governor Chris Christie plans to do something about his state’s crippling estate tax.
New Jersey is one of only two states that has both estate and inheritance taxes, so dying there is a pretty expensive business. It’s especially hard for small businesses and the middle class, who can easily slip into the bracket where estate tax becomes payable. It’s not much of a reward for a lifetime of building up assets – having the government step in and confiscate a big chunk of them. It makes it even worse when another chunk is seized from anyone who inherits what’s left. Now Christie is proposing raising the exemption, hopefully bringing thousands of NJ residents out of the bracket, and there’s pressure on him to go even further and scrap it altogether.

Continue reading “The Death Tax” »