The RATE (Reforming America's Taxes Equitably) Coalition briefed Capitol Hill this week on the benefits of lowering the federal corporate tax rate. With unemployment remaining at historic highs, it is imperative that policymakers recognize that a significant reduction in the federal corporate tax rate - currently 35 percent - will make our tax system fairer and simpler, boosting domestic employment and economic growth overall.
Fitch Ratings thinks the United States is still a AAA country, but its optimism disappeared this week. The credit evaluator downgraded the outlook for the U.S. economy to negative despite the recent bump in consumer spending and a slight improvement in employment numbers for November. It's hard to look at the inability of Congress to come up with credible spending cuts without a feeling of impending doom.
There's no end in sight for Europe's debt crisis - unless it is the end of the euro itself. The finance ministers of the 17 eurozone countries are meeting in Brussels this week, desperate to come up with a solution as Italy heads toward financial chaos. The world's central banks, spearheaded by the Federal Reserve, are coordinating efforts to provide liquidity to global markets.
Second jobs are not a new phenomenon for teachers, who have historically been paid less than other professionals. In 1981, about 11 percent of teachers were moonlighting; the number has risen to about one in five today.
How much pressure would it take before you would sell out your intellectual integrity? Those who are given responsibilities for developing and promoting sound public policy are subject to never-ending pressure by those in the political class to serve them rather than the public.
A year before the 2012 elections, candidates already are hard at work. From the president on down to the state and local level, candidates are marshaling their resources - money, media, personnel, research and more - to gain an edge with voters.
U.S. economic growth has long outpaced that of other developed countries, making our economy the envy of the world. A huge contributor to that success has been our standing as a relatively low-tax nation. But you can kiss that competitive edge goodbye if the millionaire surtax currently under consideration in the Senate becomes law.
Outside the classroom a hot summer day beckons, but fourth-grade teacher Yeon Eun-jung's students are glued to their tablet PCs as they watch an animated boy and a girl squabble about whether water becomes heavier when frozen.
Liberal pundits are alarmed that income inequality in the United States is higher than in Pakistan or Ethiopia and - as a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study shows - higher than at any time since the Great Depression. But should this be a cause for concern?
