Posted on 07/14/2009 4:10:47 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion
July 14: Welcome Instapundit readers. The host seems to have bogged down a bit, but seems to be back (grrr ….). Remember that comments are moderated. I have two somewhat-related posts and a PJM column I’m trying to get through.
Related, from July 12 at BizzyBlog, July 10 at Pajamas Media (in both cases BEFORE the release of the June 2009 Monthly Treasury Statement — “With Obamanomics, We’re Not Even $eeing Green.”
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Summarizing the past quarter’s receipts after the release of today’s Monthly Treasury Statement (chart posted in the response below)
Receipts, which I had estimated would be $230 billion in June, came in at $215.4 billion. O…M…G
Just to be clear, last year’s $866.7 billion above excludes about $78 billion in stimulus payments, which were treated (incorrectly, in my opinion) as negative receipts. Regardless of their treatment, they had nothing to do with tax collections from economic activity during the quarter. This year’s second-quarter receipts on the valid “economic activity” measurement came in almost 31% lower than last year.
More on this, and the deficit, later tonight.
UPDATE, 11 p.m. — The AP’s Martin Crutsinger outdid himself in sloppiness and deception in his report on the deficit and his Meltdown 101 Q&A. It’s too much to get to this late at night. We’ll have at it tomorrow.
Just know that the June deficit of $94 billion is a record for the month of June by miles and miles (every June from 2008 back to 1997 shows a surplus) - and, as explained previously, effective in April of this year, retroactive to October 2008, it doesn't even include all outlays any more.
CAPITAL FLIGHT!
we have all gone Galt now
“Capital Goes On Strike”
Atlas Shrugs ping
.
OT, but Dr. Orly is on Plains now (6:20 CST)
http://www.plainsradio.com/radio.html
She talking about the judge and her hearing...said she had just been interviewed by LA Times
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I changed my name to John Galt on Jan 20, 2009.
Remember when Dagny was asked “Who is John Galt?” on the initial run of the John Galt line...
We Are!
Atlas Shrugged ping!
That is shocking !
People are figuring out how to pay their taxes.
I signed up in January! Much less stress! Remember Arthur Laffer? He had a cool backward bending supply curve. Clearly demonstrated that rational people will choose a life of leisure over working their *sses off to fund the social system. It's true!
I hear you. We already have everything set in place to move to our vacation home either permanently or temporarily. They will not raise our taxes and get a dime. They will get less or none.
The federal government is spending more, and taking in much less. This will not turn out well.
Here's the figures from fms.treas.gov. Look for yourselves.
The deep roots of this really hit home to me in an ecology class I took in college.
There have been studies of squirrel foraging where they put a certain amount of nuts in multiple boxes of sand. The researchers drew up a mathematical model of when would be the optimal time for a squirrel to stop foraging in the box he's in and to switch to a fresh box. Sure enough, the squirrels instinctively stayed at one box until just after the optimal time and then switched.
The goal is ingrained even in animals--maximize productivity. You do this by increasing your food intake and decreasing the energy needed to get that food.
Now suppose the food intake is held constant--you get the same amount no matter what you do. The only variable a person/organism can control to maximize productivity is to *minimize the energy expended.*
It’s actually a simple elasticity curve and Laffer made a WAG in drawing its shape as a regular elipse. It’s useful only in making a general statement about people’s willingness to put up with taxation. In order to have any predictive or practical value the curve’s shape would have to be known, with its associated values. Laffer, btw, was a supporter of Obama this last election, and was dead wrong about the looming recession which he insisted wasn’t a threat.
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