May 19, 2013

Politics

Political decisions have a huge impact on both your financial and personal life. Learn what David John Marotta thinks in his two part series Why I Lean Libertarian and get refreshed by his 2012 candidacy announcement under his self-proclaimed Financial Freedom Party in Ignore the Politicians and Take Control of Your Financial Freedom.

Marketplace Fairness Act Burdens Businesses with State Compliance Audits

Marketplace Fairness Act

Compliance isn’t just a technical burden. It is a threat of legal liability. The bill allows state tax audits by any state against any online vendor.

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Businesses Must Use Revised I-9 Forms Or Face $1,100 civil monetary penalties per employee

I-9 Government Employment Form

And yet we wonder why small businesses disregard so many government regulations.

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Government Regulations And Compliance Do Not Make Us Safer

Milton Friedman Watercolor

The coercive power of government is more dangerous than the free market. Special interests use it to circumvent both the law and economics.

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Amazon Sales Tax Collection: Coming To Your State Soon!

Salestax.com

Amazon is currently collecting sales tax for purchases shipped to nine states. It will begin collecting sales tax on purchases for Virginia in September 2013.

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Marketplace Fairness Act Adds Automation to Tax Confusion

Pretty Penny

It is not a new tax. It is simply a tax that nearly everyone currently reading this column is successfully evading without prosecution.

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Do Tariffs Protect an Infant Industry?

Infants

Do infant industries need tariffs to protect them from their own inefficiency and stupidity?

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Is There A Moral Case for “Buy American”?

Eye on America

Perhaps we would be economically better off with global trade, but do we have an obligation to maintain a higher moral standard?

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Video: What’s So Great About Economic Freedom?

Video: Economic Freedom

Is economic freedom related to other kinds of freedoms? Does economic freedom affect personal choice?

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CPI Inflation Rate Calculator (Experienced vs. Reported)

Alternative CPI measurement

Have you ever wondered why the CPI, GDP and employment numbers run counter to your personal and business experiences? The problem lies in biased and often-manipulated government reporting.

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Is A $3 Million IRA Sufficient For Retirement?

Five Presidents

$3 million today has the same buying power as $500,000 in 1970.

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Is “Buy American” Un-American?

Tea and Bananas and Marotta in the morning.

America will continue to lose jobs where we don’t have a comparative advantage and gain jobs where we do. This change should be welcome.

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Video: Even the Beatles were against highly progressive taxes!

Taxman

Let me tell you how it will be: There’s one for you, nineteen for me. Should five per cent appear too small, Be thankful I don’t take it all.

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Greenspan, Friedman, Keynes and Lenin All Agree on Inflation

The Fading Dollar

“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” – Vladimir Lenin.

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Better to Bank with Cyprus Than the United States?

Cyprus

Without any authorizing legislation, the U.S. government has quietly taken more value than Cyprus tried and failed to confiscate.

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Is 95% of the Trade Imbalance Legal Tax Evasion?

Stark International

As one of Forbes’s 25 largest fictional companies, Stark International could avoid $4 billion in U.S. corporate taxes with this one simple technique.

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Radio: Should We Raise Taxes to Balance the Budget?

Marotta on Radio Talking

David John Marotta was interviewed on radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show in March to discuss balancing the national budget, and whether raising taxes is a good method to increase revenue to match spending.

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8 Questions For Those Who Think “Free Trade Fails in Theory and Practice”

Questions for Protectionist

If you’ve disagreed with our most recent two articles on free trade, then I challenge you to respond to these questions. Anyone?

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The Benefits of Free Trade Agreements: The Country Always Wins

Free hugs

Average Americans think about trade imbalances the wrong way. They have it exactly backward.

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The Benefits of Free Trade Defined: The Consumer Always Wins

Cup of coffee

All I want is a simple cup of coffee near where I work. Is that asking too much of free trade?

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Radio: The Importance of Property Rights

Marotta on the Radio

David John Marotta was interviewed recently on radio 1070′s WINA Schilling Show discussing property rights and their importance for a free society.

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We buy local produce because it is better, not because it is local

The sun ripening a Polyface tomato

If you could only pick one, would you like to buy a ripe tomato or a local one?

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Big Mac Index Shows Official CPI Underreports Inflation

Big Mac

The lack of an adequate CPI adjustments leave seniors 71 days shy of a year’s worth of lovin’ it. Seniors deserve a break today!

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Do Tax Cuts Actually “Starve the Beast”?

Starve the Beast?

Daniel J. Mitchell of the CATO Institute wrestles with the lack of no historical data to support the Starve the Beast model, only to find out that it’s because politicians have never really given it a shot.

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Should We Raise Taxes to Balance the Budget?

Should We Raise Taxes to Balance the Budget?

The only two ways to balance the federal budget are to spend less or to collect more. Spending less is the preferred method, but that is just not happening. As a result, politics is pushing many in Congress to try to balance the budget by raising taxes.

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15 Tax Moves For Right Now. Really?

1040-2013

Do any of these ideas suggest any incentive for the highly productive to continue producing?

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Should We Starve the Beast?

Hungry bear

Even to conservative political parties, starving the beast is not the ideal solution.

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Financially Savvy Kittens on Size of Government

Doesn't Rely On Government

This kitten doesn’t rely on government. Be more like this kitten.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower on tax cuts and a balanced budget

Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Until the deficit is eliminated from our budget, … there is no end to inflation; there is finally no end to taxation; and the eventual result would, of course, be catastrophe.”

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What Is Rent-Seeking Behavior?

Taking money from the ballot box

Studies suggest that $1.5 trillion is wasted on public sector rent-seeking.

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Encourage property rights, not democracy

Greece v. Chile in Economic Freedom

Even if democracy is the principal objective, encourage the rule of law.

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Financially Savvy Kittens on Earning Money

Money Grow On Trees

This kitten knows money doesn’t grow on trees. Be more like this kitten.

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The Effective Rule of Law Propels Prosperity

the-effective-rule-of-law-propels-prosperity_t

Property rights are among the characteristics most correlated with high levels of per capita gross domestic product (GDP).

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Are Property Rights Human Rights?

All men are created equal

Does a property owner has the right to use and dispose of his property as he sees fit even if that means he is being irrational, arbitrary, capricious, even unjust?

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Bailing out the Boneheads

aigbail_t

The recent AIG marketing campaign makes my skin crawl. In what they are calling “America’s Profit,“ AIG boasts that repayment of the bailouts created a positive return for taxpayers.

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Is a National Sales Tax Really Fair?

Fair Tax

Claims of “fair” or even “regressive” or “progressive” depend very much on what is used as the denominator.

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Let the Income Tax Die at Age 100

Income Tax

The income tax penalizes productivity, discourages hard work, and suppresses investment.

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Political parties on the gun rights and gun control

Minute Man

The political party platforms on gun control and gun rights for 2012.

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Am I Safer If My Neighbor Has A Gun?

Minute Man

Currently homicides are largely committed by minority men age 18 to 39 with criminal records in urban areas killing others in the same demographic.

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Political parties on the environment and environmentalism

Flower and Bee

Here are the 2008 party platforms on the environment

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Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Punishes Marriage

Wedding Couple

The maximum income for a couple is not double what it is for a single person. Your spouse’s income can disqualify you from credits you could have received if you had not been legally married.

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Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Marriage Penalty of $3,603

Wedding rings and money

The maximum income for a couple is not double what it is for a single person. Your spouse’s income can disqualify you from credits you could have received if you had not been legally married.

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Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Marriage Penalty of $8,400

Wedding rings and money

The worst marriage penalty is for couples earning between $26,000 and $60,000 who have three or more children.

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EPA: Green Gone Wild

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Stewardship suggests limits on how people ought to rule over their environment. It is not a justification for bureaucrats’ limitless rule over people.

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Government taxes $33,356 just because couple decides to get married

Marriage Penalty

You cannot argue this increased tax is their “fair share” simply because they are married.

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New Year’s Resolutions for the Country

2013

To fulfill the financial resolutions of spending less, living within our means, and paying off our debt, the country first needs to encourage production rather than discourage it.

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Trickle-Down Taxation

Trickle Down Taxation

One of the strange and unintended consequences of targeting the rich with more taxes will be a greater gap between the rich and the poor as employees will shoulder their fair share no matter what.

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The Lord Mayor Would Have Spoiled “A Christmas Carol”

The Lord Mayor

Studies suggest that both a gambling addiction and success in politics correlate with psychopathic behavior. Had Dickens included a gambler personality in a Christmas Carol, it would have been a different story.

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Radio: Duo-Deci Taxation

Marotta on Radio Talking

David John Marotta was interviewed on radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show on December 11, 2012 discussing the Fiscal Cliff, rising taxation, and economic discrimination.

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Deck the Halls with Macro Follies

Deck The Halls With Macro Follies

Will millions of middle income consumers spending $2,200 each have a greater stimulus than thousands of small business entrepreneurs saving and investing $100,000 each in new ventures? You decide after watching this holiday video from EconStories.

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The Ninth Amendment: The Value of Our Unenumerated Rights

The Ninth Amendment

Few of us ever think about how the Ninth Amendment preserves all of our rights not cited in the Constitution. What are some examples of these unenumerated rights?

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