It’s not just California.  Tax revenue is falling everywhere.
State income-tax revenue fell 26% in the first four months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to a survey of states by the nonprofit Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
The report, conducted by the public-policy research arm of the State University of New [...]

As understandable as the Congressional response to the AIG bonuses was, the reality is that this does create a number of disturbing precedents. We have a stupid Congress mindlessly lashing out to compensate for its own complicity in political corruption (Congress has long been a major recipient of Wall Street largesse, including AIG) [...]

California’s problems are well-known. They have been in the making for sometime. When I predicted a U.S. state would go bust this year, California was very much on my mind. But, frankly, Kansas was nowhere on my radar screen. Now both states have gotten my attention.

This is pretty funny actually (Hat tip Michael Turk).

There has been a general outcry for economic stimulus on the part of the North American, U.K. and Eurozone federal governments to counteract the fall in private sector consumption. In the U.S. and the U.K. in particular, this message is being heard and largess will be delivered in spades.

But, in the United States, there is a bit of a problem: state and local governments. They will not, and often cannot, spend. In fact some will be cutting. Will local government budget cuts undercut federal fiscal stimulus?

It sure seems like California is insolvent. Just today we heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger contacted Hank Paulson to let him know that the State is having liquidity problems (see pdf) and needs help. California ranks as the world’s 9th largest economy with a population of over 30 million people, so this is quite worrying.

Not if you believe the figures from a University of Calgary – C.D. Howe Institute study comparing tax rates in 80 countries – remember, they’re Canadians (hat tip Stephen Gordon). In this list, which includes all the major economies, the U.S. ranks in 3rd place for the highest corporate tax rate for advanced economies [...]

The chart below is yet another from Perot Charts. I have no particular message in mind with this chart except to inform my readers how the government gets and uses tax monies.
One issue to note is the outsize proportion of taxes that come from individuals despite the U.S. having a relatively high corporate tax [...]

A friend from the UK visited me at the weekend last week. As we drove by the local Exxon, and he spotted the $4.30 marker for regular unleaded, he commented “Petrol is cheap here.” Really?
Well, in the UK, he said he was paying £1.40 a litre for diesel. With the British pound near [...]

Amity Shlaes has a good column over at Bloomberg News. Her post today is about the likely rise in taxes we are going to see in 2009 and beyond. She admonishes the Democrats for being overly complex when it comes to taxes. She says:
“The overall point isn’t that Obama has or even wants the [...]