Become a Patron! Every once in a while a term of art is plucked from the world of academic literature and spread around like manure by journalists and pundits until people who have no idea what it originally meant start using it in casual conversation. What percentage of conservatives griping about "intersectionality" have ever read Kimberle Crenshaw's original … [Read more...] about “Horizontal equity” is a perfectly reasonable idea used exclusively to make bad arguments
Archives for April 2019
Three bad and one good way to think about public higher education and tuition
Become a Patron! Elizabeth Warren made a splash this week with her plan to both ensure public higher education is tuition-free and forgive up to $50,000 per student of the existing stock of federal student debt. I already offered my hottest takes on Twitter, but I think a lot of the disagreements surrounding public tuition and student debt revolve around fundamentally … [Read more...] about Three bad and one good way to think about public higher education and tuition
What would total employer-employee collusion look like?
Become a Patron! I've lately been researching some employer-side tax benefits and binge-listening to an organized-crime-themed comedy podcast, which I'm not going to name because it's so vulgar that I strongly discourage anyone with a weak stomach or guilty conscience from listening to it (e-mail me if you're interested), and the two eventually crystalized in my mind the … [Read more...] about What would total employer-employee collusion look like?
If you have employees, adopt a written paid family and medical leave policy right now
Become a Patron! While doing some research for another project, I was reminded that in the CPA Full Employment Act of 2017, Republicans included a tax credit for employers offering paid family leave. Since I have some W-2 income in addition to my Patreon income, I decided to look into it and see exactly how the tax credit works. The good news is, it is in many ways better … [Read more...] about If you have employees, adopt a written paid family and medical leave policy right now
Taking the inverted yield curve literally, not seriously
Become a Patron! Last month, a funny thing happened: the yield on a 10-year US Treasury obligation dropped below the yield on a 3-month Treasury obligation. This bizarre financial market event attracted a lot of attention, even in the mainstream press, because such "yield curve inversions" have historically been correlated with economic recessions. Given the length of the … [Read more...] about Taking the inverted yield curve literally, not seriously