General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's Tax Cut Hasn't Done Anything for Workers
By Noah Smith at Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/view/articles/2018-07-18/trump-s-tax-cut-hasn-t-done-anything-for-workers?__twitter_impression=true
"SNIP......
Official data for the second quarter isnt available yet, but private data isnt looking encouraging. PayScales index of real wages shows a dramatic deterioration in the period:
....
But perhaps two quarters is too early to expect results in this area. A better gauge might be business investment if the tax reform is spurring businesses to increase capital expenditure, as it was supposed to do, then wage increases will probably follow in due course.
Some have expressed dismay that stock buybacks seem to have taken precedence over boosting capital investment. Since the tax cuts passed, companies have been using buybacksto return record amounts of cash to shareholders more than $700 billion in the first two quarters. That naturally raises the possibility that companies dont have good projects to invest in. If companies pass their tax windfall on to shareholders, those investors can choose to react by increasing consumption meaning more of societys resources go to the wealthy. They can also choose to invest the money in other companies with better growth prospects but if those companies are also reacting by returning the money to their shareholders, rather than making capital expenditures, not much is getting accomplished.
So is any of the tax-cut windfall being used to finance the capital expenditure that the economy needs? Private nonresidential fixed investment did increase as a share of the economy in the first two quarters since the reform was passed:
.......SNIP"
sakabatou
(42,146 posts)exboyfil
(17,862 posts)How many yachts can you ski behind. How much is enough.
catrose
(5,065 posts)dchill
(38,471 posts)Seriously.
Takket
(21,555 posts)Making the rich richer while we all deal with less.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)to target working people and retirees? But they also have to use it to cut social security medicare and medicaid as the deficit will explode even more with redirecting the funds from those programs to pay down the deficits.
Throw grandma out of the nursing home so you can buy a bigscreen TV.....its coming. The republicans have to make divisive country based on generation/age. The young vs the old....keeps all of us from coming together to prevent the 99% vs 1%