January - 2018

SOUND ECONOMIC AND PUBLIC POLICY (SEPP) CONSULTING

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Apple's $30 Billion Jobs Investment

Apple's $30 Billion Jobs Investment

Did you say "trickle down economics"? Scratch that... it looks like a waterfall. Apple plans to take advantage of the incentive in the Tax Reform law by paying the 15.5% one time tax on repatriated foreign profits, a tax of about $38 billion. Apple also in tandem plans to increase investment in the US by about $30 billion. According to a Reuter's news report, when asked whether the job creation announcements were directly related to the Republican tax plan, Apple CEO Tim Cook

High Tax Blue States and Tax Reform

High Tax Blue States and Tax Reform

From the scenes that played out at the end of last year as many residents in high property tax states rushed to try to prepay some or all of their 2018 taxes so as to fully deduct them on their 2017 tax returns to the continued search for ways to circumvent the SALT and property tax deduction cap imposed by tax reform, there is anger in New York, California, and New Jersey over the seeming unfairness of the new tax law. Is the anger justified? Perhaps, but this anger might as

Medicaid Work Requirement Policy: Politics Aside

Medicaid Work Requirement Policy: Politics Aside

The statistical type I and type II errors clash again with Medicaid brought under close scrutiny as the Trump Administration looks to trim spending. Here is the issue: The Trump Administration is looking to eliminate possible freeriding on the very generous Medicaid by able bodied non-elderly members of the population who are unwilling to work, by allowing states to attach work requirements as a condition of receiving aid. The current law prohibits this but states can apply f

What Walmart Giveth, It Taketh Away?

What Walmart Giveth, It Taketh Away?

So Walmart has decided both to raise the minimum wage it pays its workers to $11/ hour and to permanently close some of their Sam's Club branches at the same time. The raise is supposedly linked to anticipated benefits from the lower corporation tax rates they will face and other incentives brought about by the tax reform law, hence the trickling down of the benefits from the Corporations to the workers. However the tradeoff is not supposed to be seen in job losses still rela