GOOD WEEKEND
Listen: 'There's something ironic about being fat-shamed by IS'
The 10-part Caliphate podcast series offers a deeper dive into some of the incredible terrorism reporting of New York Times journalist Rukmini Callimachi.
- by Donna Lu
New York Times editorial, You Know Who the Tax Cuts Helped? Rich People:
When
Republicans were pitching a massive tax cut for corporations and
wealthy families last year, they promised voters many benefits:
increased investment, higher wages and a tax cut that pays for itself.
The tax plan, congressional leaders said, would turbocharge the American
economy and provide a much-needed helping hand to working-class
families.
“Most
people, half the people in this country, live paycheck to paycheck, so
there’s a lot of economic anxiety,” the House speaker, Paul Ryan, told
The Times in November. “And I think just one of the key solutions is
faster economic growth, more jobs. And I think the best thing we could
do to deliver that is tax reform.”
So,
more than six months since President Trump signed the tax cut into law,
is it delivering on the promises Mr. Ryan and other leaders made? ...
The
most notable outcome of the tax law is one that few Republicans talked
about: Companies are buying back their own stock — a lot of it. Stock
buybacks are expected to
reach a record $1 trillion this year. After Congress reduced the top
federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, businesses are
flush with cash. Lawmakers also let companies repatriate foreign
earnings that they have been amassing at a rate of 15.5 percent for cash
and 8 percent for other assets.
Wall Street Journal op-ed: Trump's Tax Wisdom, by James Freeman:
Imagine
how high the U.S. economy can soar if President Trump resolves the
arguments he started with America’s trading partners. Already the
conventional wisdom on the tax law he signed in December is moving in
his direction. Whereas prior to the law critics suggested it would
provide a modest temporary boost, there’s now an emerging consensus that
the law may pull so much investment into the United States that it
could impoverish governments across the globe.
Nothing says establishment consensus like the International Monetary Fund. The Journal [U.S. Corporate Tax Cuts Likely to Hit Other Countries’ Bottom Lines] on the findings of a new IMF working paper [Tax Spillovers from US Corporate Income Tax Reform] forecasting the results of the suddenly more competitive United States: