When President Barack Obama announced four measures to encourage savings, one of them represented a victory for a non-profit group that’s trying to find ways for low-income Americans to save. Since 2005, the Doorways to Dreams Fund has been saying that…

Many parts of the tax code are indexed for inflation, and that usually means an annual increase in such figures as the amount you’re allowed to contribute to a 401k. Next year, however, the 401k limit may go down instead…

The Show Me Institute, which has been campaigning to eliminate Missouri’s income tax, posted a new case study today in support of that cause. Authors Jenifer Zeigler Roland and David Roland compare Missouri’s economic performance with that of Tennessee, its neighbor to the…

For folks fortunate to have an employer match in their 401k plan, failing to contribute would be like passing up free money. That’s a powerful incentive to save. Now, some officials in Washington want more people to have that incentive…

If it’s April, it must be time for the battle of the tax-policy wonks. The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation issued a report yesterday declaring that Tax Freedom Day falls on April 13 this year, and the more liberal Center on Budget and…

Political “predictions markets” are nothing new, but until now they’ve existed either offshore or as limited, non-profit experiments. Now a group called the American Civics Exchange is launching what it bills as “the first US-based commercial market for political futures.”…

After a few days off, I’m still trying to catch up with all the commentary about the AIG bonuses. Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times attracted many negative comments after saying that the government should honor employees’ contracts. Here’s…

We’re getting $288 billion of tax relief as part of this year’s economic stimulus package. So, will it really stimulate the economy?

Maybe a third of it will, if consumers follow the pattern they did last year.  In case you’ve forgotten, back…

In the debate over the economic-stimulus bill, much attention was paid to the money that would go into energy-saving projects, bridges and tax breaks for ordinary Americans. Now, it turns out that a big chunk of the money may find its…

You’ve read repeatedly that the fiscal stimulus law contains about $500 billion of federal spending and a little less than $300 billion of tax cuts. Howard Gleckman at the Tax Policy Center figures, though, that the tax cuts may end up…