Where is the US economy headed?

The News, a Pakistani daily, reported recently that 60 strikes since early 2006 had killed 687 civilians and only 14 al-Qaeda leaders, a ratio few Pakistanis would find acceptable. The campaign, in fact, may be contributing to a swelling of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and weakening the fragile government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

The figures are for TOTAL Federal revenues.

What does state taxes have to do with eliminating the Federal deficit? Nothing that I can see other than you are attempting a red herring.

Not really circular at all. State tax rates (income and sales) have been rising steadily for decades - nothing circular there. I

The subject was the "tax burden".

Quote:

The News, a Pakistani daily, reported recently that 60 strikes since early 2006 had killed 687 civilians and only 14 al-Qaeda leaders, a ratio few Pakistanis would find acceptable. The campaign, in fact, may be contributing to a swelling of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and weakening the fragile government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1900248,00.html


Who was President in 2006 Squirt?
.....

Any discussion of historical tax burden is incomplete without pointing out that there have been MANY and various tax shelters and tax dodges invented and utilized over the years.

Quote:

Any discussion of historical tax burden is incomplete without pointing out that there have been MANY and various tax shelters and tax dodges invented and utilized over the years.

And they all should be eliminated, because remember, according to the VP, paying higher taxes is the "patriotic" thing to do.

Unless you are the DNC and those taxes are property taxes on an exclusive property you own in Washington DC.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/dnc-and-dncs-private-dinner-club-penalized-for-late-taxes-16-times-in-7-years-pjm-exclusive/

But who started it okie? That was the original question.

t started the pattern of irresponsible home loan behavior in the industry by mandating, encouraging, and enabling banks to practice unsound loan practices, until the entire house of cards began to crumble.

Relation to 2008 financial crisis
See also: Subprime mortgage crisis and Global financial crisis of 2008–2009

Some economists, politicians and other commentators[who?] have charged that the CRA contributed in part to the 2008 financial crisis by encouraging banks to make unsafe loans. Economists, including those from the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, dispute this contention. The Federal Reserve, having examined the evidence, holds that empirical research has not validated any relationship between the CRA and the 2008 financial crisis.[100] At the FDIC, Chair Sheila Bair delivered remarks noting that the majority of subprime loans originated from lenders not regulated by the CRA, calling it a "scapegoat" and declaring it "NOT guilty."[101]

Some legal and financial experts note that CRA regulated loans tend to be safe and profitable, and that subprime excesses came mainly from institutions not regulated by the CRA. In the February 2008 House hearing, law professor Michael S. Barr, a Treasury Department official under President Clinton,[67][113] stated that a Federal Reserve survey showed that affected institutions considered CRA loans profitable and not overly risky. He noted that approximately 50% of the subprime loans were made by independent mortgage companies that were not regulated by the CRA, and another 25% to 30% came from only partially CRA regulated bank subsidiaries and affiliates. Barr noted that institutions fully regulated by CRA made "perhaps one in four" sub-prime loans, and that "the worst and most widespread abuses occurred in the institutions with the least federal oversight".[114] According to Janet L. Yellen, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, independent mortgage companies made risky "high-priced loans" at more than twice the rate of the banks and thrifts; most CRA loans were responsibly made, and were not the higher-priced loans that have contributed to the current crisis.[115] A 2008 study by Traiger & Hinckley LLP, a law firm that counsels financial institutions on CRA compliance, found that CRA regulated institutions were less likely to make subprime loans, and when they did the interest rates were lower. CRA banks were also half as likely to resell the loans.[116] Emre Ergungor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that there was no statistical difference in foreclosure rates between regulated and less-regulated banks, although a local bank presence resulted in fewer foreclosures.[117]

The industry was a house of cards because it was built upon a very flawed structure, that of the government mandating loans in high risk areas and with high risk borrowers, and also buying those loans from the banks that followed their example.