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A tad early, but Christmas music will be coming on the radio next week! At least here in DC.. The article outlines a government plan to make a little extra revenue, and how that plan was so fiercely opposed. The tax would be imposed on the producers, given that they produce more than 500 trees a year, and in turn the producers would probably have to increase their prices. Since it is a specific tax with a fixed amount of $0.15 (not dependent on the price of the trees) it will shift the supply curve up. Even though the article states that the program "wouldn't have any impact on the final price consumers pay for their Christmas tree" - there would be an inevitable small impact at least in one retail area of the trees. Since there are so many consumers that will want Christmas trees, a tax would bring in a fair amount of money, as there are no substitutes for Christmas trees.

This article discusses the American economy, and tax policy fairness, just like our weekly discussion did! It's fascinating to read about "societal notions of fairness" in the context of the tax policy to raise revenue. (read this it's super relevant.)

This article illustrates an important aspect of taxing that we looked at in the past few weeks, and are looking at this week as well. The government increases taxes on inelastic products (such as tobacco and alcohol- which are addictive and therefore necessities). This is done as with a price increase on an inleastic product, the demand decreases by a proportionally smaller amount. This decreases any potential danger for high levels of unemployment on behalf of the company's supplying the products.

MITT ROMNEY'S dense comments about the dependency of Americans who pay no income taxes were dense not only because they seemed to write off a significant portion of... This article talks of how the amount of people who pay no tax is very high and tax cuts are currently being discussed to try to decrease the burden on the middle class. The upper class currently has quite a high tax rate. This is trying to distribute the income more fairly.

This article discusses the excise taxes in Hawaii and how the revenues have risen over 8 percent in recent times! Although the article did not describe exactly why this has occurred, however the most accurate predictions would that the increase in revenue would be due to increased taxes on inelastic items, for example, gasoline, etc. This not only ensures that the demand is unchanged, but also ensures that all other factors stay the same. Another reason why the revenues have increased could be that the taxes did not increase, however the population grew.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15701101 I think a better way would be to implement a rationing system. However, this would cost far too much money and will never happen. The end result being that those laying claims on being missold PPI- "No tax is generally due on the repayment element of compensation paid to those missold PPI. However, the additional interest is taxable - in line with other compensation claims." but the "taxman" (the government) gets to pocket lots of tax revenue.

Hello, In this video it talks about how the fuel prices have tripled over the last 20 years. It says that most of it has come from taxation and how in January the tax will increase by 3p a liter. This will translate that the average price will in by $1.50, however, if the government decided not in impose the tax then they would lose out of $1.5 billion of much needed revenue. Today, people spend a lot of their income on fuel and for people who own their own businesses they need have as much burden as possible because they will lose their demand. All in all, the government can keep the drivers and motorists happy by not increasing the tax or increase there revenue to help themselves out of the European economic crisis. From Tim

This article talks about how negative externalities links to taxes and how it can affect a person. It compares taxing soda with other products like fuel, cigarettes etc. and how the government makes decisions on what to tax. Quote the article: "Even as adults, we sometimes wish for parents to be looking over our shoulders and guiding us to the right decisions. The question is, do you trust the government enough to appoint it your guardian?"

This is an example of an excise tax because it is a tax on products that aren't environmentally friendly and the article mentions that there is political pressure to put the ecotax "on the shelf" so consumers can make better decisions. 

This article talks about how putting taxes for fossil fuels may help to reduce the the consumption of fossil fuels. This is necessary because fossil fuels are become very scarce and we are running out of them as they are a non-renewable energy source. However, not everyone wants the tax to go up as this would mean increased spending when they cannot afford to do this. Many energy companies will be able to push this increase of tax onto the consumer as it is an inelastic product and the demand will not decrease much if the price is increased.

This article concerns the increased taxes being imposed upon alcohol in Sri Lanka. The reason for this is because alcohol is viewed by many as a 'necessity', and is also addictive (which makes it a necessity). This makes alcohol a product with inelastic demand; as an increase in price will result with a proportionally smaller decrease in demand. This avoids chances of unemployment by increasing the product's price, and is therefore a reason for the increase in the imposed tax upon it.

China's 40% tax imposed since 2008 is a violation of WTO regulations. As such, they have to renew their policy. However, this would raise their exports competitions decreasing FOB price.

This article talks about environmental sustainability, especially in the US, in terms of the carbon and oil situation. Hindering some paths of oil trade, may slow down the trade in the early stages, however there will be other paths since the international demand is so high right now. The price is steadily decreasing with the increased demand. The only ways to control this demand for oil that may be hurting our planet would be to tax the carbon (increasing the price), therefore decreasing demand.

This article demonstrates opportunity cost because a rise in government revenues may lead to a shortfall in private sector investment.

This article states the relationship between currencies, which links to prices, and the demand for goods and services. While the currencies are weakened worldwide, the manufacturing industries are highly impacted. Therefore, the supply is lowered.

"We need to have a much more honest conversation about the tradeoff between inflation and real growth." There is an ongoing conflict of how to manage inflation via increasing aggregate demand which is the classic trade off. The article indicates "liberals arguing for government intervention and conservatives often pushing for tax breaks and incentives to get the private sector moving again." This is not only a national economic conflict, but a political conflict as well.

This article is about how the UK's recession is continuing and it talks about how even though the tax revenue has increased this year, the spending continues to rise.