Some Links

Tweet ^[1]

Susan Dudley reflects on the late Alfred Kahn ^[2].

David Henderson praises my favorite city in the world, New York ^[3].  (David will be a guest on tonight’s Stossel ^[4].)

Here’s Steve Landsburg’s tribute to Ronald Coase on the latter’s 100th birthday ^[5].

I’m eager to read this paper by Larry Ribstein and my GMU colleague, over in the law school, Henry Butler ^[6].  Process matters.

And speaking of Coase and of Butler, here’s a short video by Henry on “the power of law and economics ^[7].”

Fortune‘s Allan Sloan argues that a significant portion of the Bush tax cuts was absorbed by the Alternative Minimum Tax ^[8].  (HT Sheldon Jacobs)  I especially like this line from Sloan’s article: “To Obama, all families with at least $250,000 of annual income and single taxpayers with $200,000 are ‘rich.’ But to the AMT, many of them are prey.”  Why?  Quoting again Sloan: “The Tax Policy Center says that three-quarters of taxpayers with incomes between $200,000 and $500,000 lost almost two-thirds of their Bush tax cut to the AMT. ‘Those people really got clobbered'” says Roberton Williams, a TPC senior fellow. ‘On average, they lost 63% of their Bush tax cut.'”

Mark Perry’s post reminds me why I tell my students that the term “tax cut” is vague, for it could mean a cut in tax rates, a decision to shrink the tax base, or a reduction in tax revenues ^[9].

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