Look to Sweden! Obama's High-Tax Gurus

(WASHINGTON) — Some reward. Here’s the assignment President Barack Obama has won with his re-election: Improve an economy burdened by high unemployment, stagnant pay, a European financial crisis, slowing global growth and U.S. companies still too anxious to expand much. (MORE: How Obama Data-Mined His Re-election Victory) And, oh yes, an economy that risks sinking into another recession if Congress can’t reach a budget deal to avert tax increases and deep spending cuts starting in January. Yet the outlook isn’t all grim.

OIL prices continue to rise today. West Texas Intermediate is over $97 per barrel. Brent crude is closing in on $110 (for an explanation of why the two prices are diverging, click here). Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner isn't worried:

Greg Mankiw's post today reminds me that I meant to post this interview with Emmanuel Saez on "taxing away inequality":

With sequesters and loopholes the only two words that seem to matter in Washington (the latter more than the former as far as action), we suspect the popularity of the so-called 'Bermuda Triangle' tax dodge may raise more than a few eyebrows. Put simply, hedge fund managers create a Bermuda-based re-insurance entity, their clients (high-net-worth individuals) funnel their hard-earned gains through this offshore entity and back to the US hedge funds - dramatically reducing their personal income taxes.

The excise tax on high cost health care plans has dubbed them "Cadillac" plans, a choice that was always a little puzzling.  The primary demographic for Cadillacs is on Medicare, not Goldman's payroll.  And one of the main targets of the tax is the union members who form a core part of the Democratic base.  The notion that these people are grotesquely overpaid freeloaders is usually a Republican talking point.

By Dylan Matthews

By Dylan Matthews wswest asks:

Well, this could be a short blogpost, because in Mitt Romney’s words, “frankly it can’t be scored” [The Hill]. However, I think it of interest to consider what it would take to make the Romney plan deficit neutral, as he has argued it would be. What can one say, given this constraint of vagueness?