Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

Moderated by Rick Badie

Mayor Kasim Reed writes about a “metropolitan export initiative” designed to strengthen the global business identity of the Atlanta region and expand business opportunities with overseas markets. Reed’s plan creates city-to-city partnerships to bolster the area’s global competitiveness. Two state Department of Transportation officials outline that agency’s plans to make Georgia a “Golden Gateway of Choice.”

By Kasim Reed

Over the past three years, Atlanta has become a safer, financially healthier and stronger metropolis for business, science and technology. However, to meet the post-recession jobs challenge and become a leading world-class city in a 21st century economy, we must work harder.

At Wednesday’s Global Cities Initiative forum, sponsored by the Brookings Institution and JP Morgan Chase, I will highlight the region’s assets: the nation’s third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies; the world’s busiest passenger airport; globally …

Continue reading Mayor Kasim Reed: Expand Atlanta’s global business identity »

Moderated by Rick Badie

States with budget shortfalls are struggling to account for the revenue gaps. One way to boost their economic health would be for states and the federal government to close corporate tax loopholes, writes an official for a nonprofit consumer group. A certified public accountant suggests changes in the U.S. tax code would raise revenue but might also cause substantial job losses. A third writer talks about stopping tax refund fraud.

Close tax loopholes used by companies

By Laura Murray

The budget fights in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta are looking predictably ugly this year, and shape up along familiar lines: Do we raise taxes? Do we sink deeper in debt? Which programs do we cut? How deep?

Fueling these debates are the automatic across-the-board federal spending cuts taking place around the country. These cuts make no distinction between public priorities and wasteful spending, cutting both with equal abandon. Cuts to military spending and Medicare are …

Continue reading Tax havens and tax refund fraud »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Legislators often say they must cut spending while they simultaneously reward big corporations — the job creators — with tax breaks and incentives. Today, a former state budget analyst questions this practice, while a state chamber executive cites its economic benefits.

Commenting is open below.

Some tax breaks might not work

By Alan Essig

The 2013 General Assembly is considering giving special tax treatment to encourage mobile home sales, help Georgia’s aircraft maintenance companies compete against their counterparts in other states, and lower the cost of zoo construction projects.

The tax breaks on the menu would diminish state revenues by tens of millions of dollars if all became law. That would be on top of the nearly $300 million in corporate tax credits for economic development Georgia now hands out each year.

This should raise eyebrows even if state budget cuts to education weren’t still causing teacher furloughs and layoffs across the state, …

Continue reading Are tax breaks for corporations a good deal? »

 Moderated by Rick Badie

Proponents of President Barack Obama’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour say it would bode well for business and the overall economy. Opponents label the rate increase a jobs killer that would hurt small business owners. Should Congress boost the minimum wage? We present four views on the matter.

Wage hike bad idea for many reasons

By Kyle Jackson

President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour and allow automatic increases in the future based on inflation.

This is a bad idea.

Supporters say raising the minimum wage would help the working poor keep up with the cost of living. The truth is that an arbitrary increase inevitably hurts the people a wage increase is meant to help — young people, first-time workers and those with no or limited skills.

Last spring, Robert Nielsen, an assistant professor of housing and consumer economics at the …

Continue reading Federal minimum wage: $7.25 or $9 an hour? »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Georgia has endured tough economic times and continues to struggle in the post-recession recovery. A recent report by a nonpartisan think tank offers some perspective on the deep damage incurred to the financial health of our state. I highlight the report’s findings, while two policy analysts outline solutions for greater prosperity.

Georgians: Broke and living paycheck to paycheck

By Rick Badie

Many Georgians are practically broke, living paycheck to paycheck.

Too few of us save for our children’s college education, much less retirement.

And God forbid an emergency slaps us, given that we’re already teetering on a personal financial cliff, just getting by. Many Georgians are one emergency away from financial ruin. So says the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington-based, nonpartisan think tank that focuses on household finances and solutions for low- to moderate-income earners.

The organization recently released the 2013 version of its …

Continue reading Georgians teeter on personal financial cliffs »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Debate continues regarding the use of partial public funding — money derived from the hotel-motel tax — to pay for a new Atlanta Falcons stadium. Today, an economics professor suggests that it’s a myth to say only out-of-town visitors pay this fee. And two Georgia Chamber of Commerce executives consider the sports venue a wise investment for the state.

Local residents pay hotel-motel tax, too

By J.C. Bradbury

Public funding of a new Atlanta Falcons stadium has focused on the hotel-motel tax, but it’s myth, repeated much lately, that such a tax is paid entirely by out-of-town visitors.

Taxing visitors seems like a winning move because residents get a new project while someone else gets the bill. But putting the responsibility on hotel guests to pay the tax doesn’t mean the revenue it generates comes solely from the pockets of nonresidents.

Economists have long known the burden of a tax is not determined by who pays the tax. The relative sensitivities of …

Continue reading The myth of the hotel-motel tax »

By Rick Badie

When it comes to student loan debt, the news continues to grow dimmer. Defaults are on a disturbing uptick. So is the average amount of an educational loan. In 2012, the average borrower’s loan topped $27,000, a 58 percent increase in seven years, according to research by FICO Labs, an analytical firm. Today, a guest writer says we have reached the “danger zone,” while co-authors of the other essay question the worth of a college education.

Student loan debt will hamper economy

By Andrew Jennings

What is the next financial crisis threatening to ripple through the U.S. economy?

Student loan delinquencies.

This may surprise some people. After all, bad student loans don’t have the same domino effect as mortgage foreclosures, which bring down property values, reduce the real wealth of homeowners and affect related businesses, such as furniture manufacturers and construction companies.

However, the situation in student lending isn’t pretty. It appears to be getting …

Continue reading Crisis: Student loan debt »

Moderated by Rick Badie

President Barack Obama and Congress struck a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, but who are the real winners and losers in the last-minute deal? Not the middle class, laments Bernie Marcus, Home Depot co-founder and philanthropist. Ditto for job creators, he writes today. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson says the plan protects the middle class and, among other things, requires the wealthy to pay a fairer share of taxes. And an Atlanta accountant highlights tax changes for 2013.

Job creators need pro-growth policies

By Bernie Marcus

Surprise!

Middle-class workers may be puzzled this month as they open smaller paychecks. Few knew their payroll tax holiday expired in the fine print of the “fiscal cliff” deal recently reached in Washington. Now the average worker will pay an additional $1,000 in annual taxes, erasing any meager wage gains he or she saw in the past year.

Still, President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders proudly congratulated themselves for saving …

Continue reading Deficit, debts and pro-growth policies »

Moderated by Rick Badie

A recent statewide poll conducted by the AJC showed 72 percent of respondents either opposed or strongly opposed using hotel/motel tax collections in Atlanta and unincorporated Fulton County to help finance construction of a new Falcons stadium. Today, a guest writer says opponents of using that revenue to help fund the venue misunderstand the tax’s purpose. A businessman suggests, as an option, courting a “backup tenant” for the Georgia Dome.

Tax designed to create economic benefits

By Mike Hassinger

Polls show Georgians and Atlantans don’t like it. Georgia Common Cause opposes it, as does the tea party and several people I know. They’re all wrong on this deal to replace the Georgia Dome with a new stadium.

The Georgia World Congress Center Authority has the legal power to issue bonds (about $200 million worth) to fund things related to the GWCC Georgia World Congress Center campus, which includes the Congress Center, Centennial Olympic Park and …

Continue reading Public money for privately-owned Falcons »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Today we discuss the mark-to-market, or fair value, accounting rule. It requires banks to record the price or value of a security, portfolio or account to reflect current market value. A guest columnist, who is not writing in his role as a bank executive, says the rule may have caused many banks to fail and should be suspended. I interview Jack T. Ciesielski, a Baltimore money manager who says the regulation improves transparency and shows financial weaknesses.

Fair value reporting is meaninful reform

By Rick Badie

Q: Explain the mark-to-market rule.

A: Adjusting the value of financial instrument holdings to market price is the accounting practice known as “mark-to-market.” It’s the same way workers preparing for retirement look at their 401(k) plans: They can do something only with what they’re worth at a certain point in time. It’s their current value that matters to their plans, not the amount they invested. It’s more accurate to call it “fair value …

Continue reading Banks and fair value reporting: Meaningful or harmful? »