Jim Wetzler

My take on Mamdani is that he’s another DeBlasio with four advantages. More charisma. Better work ethic. Won’t run for President. Can learn from DeBlasio’s mistakes. No need to panic.

Imagine Elise Stefanik is giving some thought about foregoing a run for NY Governor after seeing the NJ result. She can run for her House seat, probably win, and maneuver to become House Minority Leader after the R’s dump Mike Johnson.

Be interesting to see if the Republicans abandon their gerrymandering strategy after they see the results of the Virginia House races. With those margins, the gerrymandering backfires.

I think the constitutional issue is the Privilege and Immunities Clause.

I voted the same way. Good sign.

The data in this study don’t separate in-migrants from out-migrants because NYS doesn’t publish those data. I’d want to see the disaggregated data before deciding whether to raise this tax.

Why are state income taxes a dilution?

Isn’t the issue whether the OECD should settle for half a loaf or risk having the whole project fall apart? Tax reformers rarely get everything they want.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

My issue with the DBCFT is that it’s fault intolerant. Exemptions from the border adjustments create large distortions.

Looks to me like his case for a big rate cut amounts to arguing that the other Trump policies will depress the economy do much that they need to be counterbalanced by the rate cut.

Is there a taxpayer called
Antifa? I doubt it. If not, what’s the violation?

Private companies are an ever-larger share of the economy and their securities are increasingly being sold to smaller investors. This would give private cos an incentive to report financials and would give all cos an incentive to be public. Not endorsing, but it’s not a crazy idea.

Funny thing is that these guys would probably improve the overall level of Trump Admin hires.

Kawhi Leonard, Clippers used endorsement deal to ‘circumvent’ NBA salary cap: Report

Looks like the NBA and the teams will have to hire transfer pricing specialists. More employment for economists.

What’s the remedy if tariffs are declared illegal? Do the businesses that paid get refunds? Do the in turn have to find to their customers?

Don’t understand. Isn’t the argument that Congress can limit Presidential power over the Fed that the Fed is special because the Constitution gives Congress power over the currency? If so, it would be up to Congress to decide how much authority to delegate to the President.

Let’s hope you’re right.

Jim Chanos on Crypto, AI, and Casino Capitalism The famed short-seller reminds us that technology might advance, but we’re still a pretty predictable bunch of apes.

www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives...

Insightful perspective from famous short-seller Jim Chanos.

So Trump wants the gov’t to take more equity ownership of private corporations. Is the problem that we provide too much corporate welfare or that Trump wants us to get some equity in exchange for the corporate welfare? I suspect the former.

Not sure I share the widespread concern over the Intel deal. The gov’t already committed to provide subsidies for plants to build chips for which there is no demand. Makes more sense to use the money as an equity investment to establish Intel’s technological advancement.

I had a reasonably intelligent conversation with Hagerty some years ago when he was Tennessee’s economic development director. What happens to these guys?

Can you make any sense of the substantive claims made in this letter? I can’t.

Let’s not forget that BLS also does the CPI. So if they start corrupting the data to show less inflation, that will mean lower social security benefits and higher income taxes, both of which are indexed to CPI, as well as less interest on TIPS.

Catherine Rampell has been the best economic journalist. For example, she was an early proponent of the view that Biden was neglecting inflation. Her leaving the Washington Post, while not surprising in light of Bezos’s right turn, is a real shame.

He also probably concluded he had little chance of winning a statewide election after voting for a bill that screwed NYS.

IMO, the best strategy for the IRS is to minimize the chance of Johnson amendment litigation reaching the Supreme Court until the Court’s composition changes.

The rumor was that replacement of Powell would be accelerated by 10 months minus whatever delay is caused by Powell’s refusing to leave. So the 1% drop greatly understates the market’s reaction to full-fledged fiscal dominance.

Yes. It was CA’s pursuit of NV retirees that galvanized Congress to act. The states negotiated the best deal they could.

He Helped Big Companies Dodge Taxes. Now He’s Writing the Rules.

He Helped Big Companies Dodge Taxes. Now He’s Writing the Rules. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/b...

Ken Kies is far more competent than the typical Trump Administration appointee. Trump has also appointed a competent IRS Chief Counsel. Let’s give them a chance.