Tag: Goods

Glen Hodgson is a senior fellow at the C.D. All too often, proposed changes to the tax system have been designed first and foremost to win popular support, regardless whether there is any hard evidence that it would be good for the economy and society. Economic analysis suggests sales tax rates should be raised and personal income taxes cut to improve incentives to work and save. For example, increasing the top income tax rate was justified by the current Liberal federal government as a way to improve tax fairness. The latest example of opportunistic tax politics crowding out good tax policy is carbon pricing. Putting a price on them creates an incentive to innovate and to modify behaviour – consumers can avoid paying the tax by reducing their emissions. Using the price system to change incentives was once considered a conservative idea. History shows that political leaders are able on occasion to look past the short term and achieve alignment between successful tax politics and good tax policy. The Harper government successfully reduced corporate income tax rates to improve Canadian business competitiveness, with little serious negative public response. Ontario’s Liberal government successfully reformed its sales tax system, harmonizing it with the federal GST and got re-elected.

Pete Marovich for The New York Times This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday. The Green New Deal is not a good piece of policy. I’m glad it exists because climate change and the stagnation of mass living standards are both defining challenges for this country. The plan doesn’t ask what is politically possible today. Too little, too much The overview released by Markey and Ocasio-Cortez has two main flaws: Although the plan does a good job laying out the problem of climate change, it doesn’t offer a clear vision for a solution. “Thus, at the same time, the plan avoids taking stances that are absolutely vital to reduce carbon emissions, it embraces policies that have nothing to do with climate change whatsoever.” If this were a proposal from a leading presidential candidate or a party leader, it would be worrisome. It’s more akin to a gadfly. For all its flaws, the Green New Deal is a useful call to action. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

Video More from Northern Virginia Outspoken, and sometimes controversial, republican politician Corey Stewart has decided it is time to step out of the political ring -- at least for now. “Politics sucks, it really does.” Stewart laughed, offering up a laundry list of grievances, common among campaigning politicians; too much time on the road, unhealthy eating, time away from family. “It’s time for me to move on to other things.” said the 50-year-old, sitting in his Woodbridge office. After 15 years on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, Stewart has decided not to seek a fourth term “I’m just not excited by the board anymore, I’ve been doing this for a long time.” Stewart also plans to leave state politics for the foreseeable future. “It’s going to be very, very difficult for any Republican to win statewide in Virginia unless [Republicans are] able to catch up to the Democrats in voter registration.” Stewart admitted the announcement does not ensure he will stay out of politics for good. “No I don’t think so, [politics is] in my blood. It’s everything I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid.” For now, Stewart plans to focus on his international trade law practice, which he said took a hit during the elections, but is doing “good,” now. He also plans to focus on his wife, Maria’s goals. “Maybe someday, I’ll come back [to politics] and I’m a fighter, I love to fight and I love politics,” he said. Despite seemingly retreating from politics, the former Trump campaign state co-chairman said he plans to reach out to the Trump administration, in hopes of discussing potential employment opportunities.

Nelson Chamisa (left) and Tendai Biti, seen here with US Congressmen genuinely believe they have the keys to billions of dollars from the West Reason Wafawarova on Monday It is an accepted fact in political intellectualism that political engagement is an important facet of the relationship between authorities and citizens. These are states that do not carry out elections, states that are authoritarian and led by an established and accepted leadership hierarchy or order. So an aspiring MP will first establish relations with those that already have power in the establishment; be they political leaders of opposition political parties or the governing authorities. In global politics poor dependent countries like us and the rest of African countries are the clients, and we know very well how we kowtow to powerful countries in anticipation of donations and political or military protection. So the frequenters now own food aid, not the state, the frequenters now own health facilities, not the state, the frequenters now own taxes, not the state. The United States wants Zimbabwe isolated and sanctioned so that allotment of resources is dependent on powerful and rich countries, when they will be given with stringent strings attached. ZIDERA is an act of law designed to politicise food, health, livelihoods and lives of innocent citizens of Zimbabwe. This is not how governance works. This is not how democracy works. This is not what liberation wars are fought to achieve.

The trade fight between the United States and China intensified as the two economic superpowers hit each other with their biggest round of tariffs yet.

Almost as soon as you learn that NBCUniversal licenses a version of Saturday Night Live to be produced locally in China with help from the Alibaba-owned video site Youku — and that said local Chinese version of SNL actually started airing a few weeks ago – you may find yourself wondering about, let’s say, aspects of the arrangement. Like, what the writers’ room is like. Or if they even have a writers’ room. In a Communist Party-ruled land with powerful censors, you come up with skits like this to tickle the ol’ funny bone: In one, per Quartz, news anchors downplay China’s soccer team not qualifying for the World Cup because — why else? — the team is “too good.” In another, the words to a hit song are changed from “dancing in the waves” to “let’s keep playing computer games.” The show — the first episode of which was watched nearly 100 million times, according to this report — also ran with a sketch that seemed inspired by a version of one from the American SNL. In this one, a restaurant customer complains about crayfish being dirty, which kicks off a song-and-dance number performed by people wearing crustacean costumes. NBCUniversal actually licenses more than half a dozen international versions of SNL in places like France, as well as the Middle East. When NBC announced this deal for a Chinese version last year, it was understood from the outset there likely wouldn’t be any comedians ribbing Chinese president Xi Jinping. And it’s not just politics — Chinese TV shows are also forbidden from including some of the more risque humor that makes its way into a typical SNL episode. According to one Chinese news company, the first hour-long “SNL China” episode included things like an opening monologue and music performances.

Conflict is not a new commodity in news. The “new, now” news cycle, where minute developments are reported in real time, means internal processes of consideration and decision-making, as well as the external process of negotiation, are disrupted much more frequently. Activism on social media also intervenes, and the combined effect is a ceaseless public commentary that now sits as an adjunct to policy making. Martin Parkinson, the secretary of the department of the prime minister and cabinet, reflected on this phenomenon in late 2017. Prosecuting the war has become more important than negotiating the peace “You begin to try and have a conversation with stakeholders about an issue and all of a sudden the social media campaigns are running either for or against the policy option,” Parkinson told Glyn Davis, the vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, on Davis’s podcast The Policy Shop. Conflict was the media bait – hence now, the political churn. Abbott’s government replaced the first minority government formed at the federal level in Australia since the second world war. The answer is that public muscling up fires up the base. “We must carry the base. So the product differentiation we see in daily politics is not only manufactured conflict – partisans locked in studious dialogue and dog whistling with other partisans – but manufactured conflict carried out in a bubble, a kabuki play for a boutique audience, egged on by shock jocks and partisan bobble heads in the mainstream media, intent on their own narrowcasting exercise.

She says instead that it is the only path, of which the best must be made. It just sloshes between different objects of belief. Whatever his supporters think, criticism of Corbyn is not a Blairite plot | Jack Bernhardt Read more If so, we are deep in a devotional phase. Corbyn’s opinion on the divine is unrecorded, but the religious aspect to his support base is unmistakable. Emphasis on motive is essential to the difference between religious and secular modes of politics. Religiosity is surging on the other side, too. Of course, secular and religious styles are not mutually exclusive. Politics necessarily contains both types. There isn’t much to show beyond Brexit, and the Brexit she is negotiating is shabby. To the ideologically devout, appeals for moderation from the centre sound like demands to compromise on principle, to retreat from the right path for the wrong reason.

I’ll tell you what I really admire about Donald Trump: he invented a haircut. He crops up a lot in the excellent exhibition Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18 at the Design Museum in London, which demonstrates that good design is an elusive, amoral quantity. I’m a sucker for a political meme. I admire their verbal dexterity and subversive visual content. A model citizen Hot felon news! The life of Jeremy Meeks, convicted criminal turned modelling hottie, has taken another step towards becoming the Great Expectations of the internet age. Jez, or Ol’ Blue Steal as I call him, is rumoured to be expecting a baby with Chloe Green, heiress to the Topshop empire. What about the teardrop under his lovely blue eye? They would make an absolute killing. Hardly a bolt from the blue, as they turned it into a TV series at least once before.