Monday, September 30, 2024

Willie Sutton Speaks


Nearly three years ago, the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Energy announced a $5 billion spending effort to build fleets of charging stations to lead “an electric vehicle revolution.” As of the summer of 2024, just seven charging stations had been built.

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Ford lost $44,000 on each EV sold in the second quarter, which is more than some of its trucks retail for.

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Ontario would be the Fifth-Poorest, and Quebec the Second-Poorest, U.S. State.

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Willie Sutton Speaks


An insight from Sternberg in the WSJ:

Higher taxes on capital are becoming a centerpiece of liberal politics on both sides of the Atlantic. While Democrats flirt with substantially higher taxes on capital gains (realized or unrealized), Britain’s Labour Party contemplates steeper levies on capital gains and inheritances as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves prepares her first budget proposal for release next month.

The left’s ideological suspicion of capital is only part of the story. The more important phenomenon is a profound change in the tax base in modern economies after 30 years of failed economic policies and hyperactive monetary easing. Capital, rather than labor income, is where the money is now.

For at least 40 years, the value of American households’ assets has increased faster than their incomes. Throughout much of the 1980s, household wealth hovered at or below 500% of disposable income, according to Federal Reserve data. If labor incomes and wealth had increased at the same rate, this ratio would have remained stable. Instead, U.S. household net wealth now stands at 785% of disposable income—and that’s off a peak of 836% in the first quarter of 2022.

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