Economy

Thanks to the oppressive US tax code, IBM now has more employees in India than the US.

Companies are paying special dividends to avoid the new taxes coming on January 1, some of them taking on debt to do so. Remember how we kept hearing companies were sitting on money instead of investing it? Now they're paying that money in dividends. Since that money was real savings, it helped boost economic growth. After being distributed as dividends, some of those savings will probably be spent or sent overseas, hurting economic growth.

New study shows that some US states are less economically free than Canadian provinces. I think these studies grossly overestimate economic freedom in the US. Canada dramatically cut its federal spending more than a decade ago. The US has expanded its. I doubt the US is close to Canada on economic freedom. Let's try a litmus test. Open a lemonade stand in the US and Canada, and I'll bet you the US stand is shut down by stormtroopers while the Canadian stand operates without interference. I also wonder if they take into account how much money the Fed is printing.

"Topping the list of the most economically free subdivisions of North American countries is the Canadian province of Alberta, followed by Delaware, Saskatchewan, Texas and Nevada.On average, American states lose to Canadian provinces in a number of categories, including regulation of credit, regulation of business, and legal system and property rights. While the average of economically free regions is higher in Canada, it is worth noting they have both the most free state, Alberta, and the least free state, Prince Edward Island, which is located off the coast of Nova Scotia."

Delaware makes no sense to me. I question how these numbers are determined.
"The number one issue affecting U.S. states’ freedom is the amount of government spending.“Part of this is cyclical and has to do with the recession,” Benjamin Powell,  associate professor at Suffolk University and senior fellow with the Independent Institute, explained."

Again, this makes no sense to me. It seems to me that the amount government spends should be independent from per capita income. If the government steals $3.6 trillion, it's doing $3.6 trillion of damage regardless of how much money people make.

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