Couldn’t Help But Notice (090607)
August’s federal receipts look like they will come in 5% or so above August of last year, if the Treasury Department’s August monthly report tracks the numbers in August’s final daily statement:
The nice increase in receipts from tax withholdings is consistent with other indicators of decent income growth, as is September 4’s impressive $20.1 billion in withholding collections. The corporate and not-withheld decreases aren’t important, as the big amounts for these items come in during the months when quarterly estimated taxes are due (Jan., April, June, and Sept.). These items, in those months, have consistently had percentage increases close to or exceeding double digits for several years.
August’s Monthly Treasury Statement will come out a week from today.
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In case you missed it — A few weeks ago, disgraced former Durham, North Carolina District Attorney Mike Nifong, forced to mail his law license to the State’s Bar, included a note decrying “the fundamental unfairness” of how the bar had treated him. The unfairness of what he put three innocent Duke students through in the name of political expediency and divisive national publicity clearly isn’t weighing on him. The one day he will have to spend in jail is nowhere near enough.
The unapologetic lynch mob of Duke faculty known as the Group of 88, whose unconscionable statements have been chronicled by the indefatigable KC Johnson since the travesty began (his latest relevant post is here), were apparently unavailable for comment.
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Apple has been cavalier about its first adopters for years, but the just-announced $200 (33%) price drop on the iPhone only 68 days after its debut has to be some kind of record (HT on the news to Data Poobah via NixGuy). People who have bought iPhones for $599 in the past 14 days can get that $200 back.
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Hillary Hillraiser Hsu (he’s still on her Hillraiser list, which, though less than ideal in appearance, has been saved for posterity), who first fled and then otherwise avoided jail for previous crimes for about 14 years, was allowed out on bail last week. He has disappeared. Words fail. At least with her husband, we didn’t have donors and others fleeing the country until AFTER he was elected.
Update: Since words fail, this pic is worth 1,000 of them:
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Those who appear almost gleeful over the prediction that the US economy will slow to 2% this year aren’t mentioning the growing negative expectations drag the possible expiration of the Bush tax cuts is beginning to exert on forward-looking investor behavior.
For the naysayers to get their 2% or lower full-year GDP growth, second-half growth will have to slow to less than 1.7%, since first-half growth before final the second quarter’s final revision has been over 2.3% annualized (0.7% in the first quarter, 4.0% in the second). I doubt very much that the second half will come in that low, but now you know where to lay much of the blame if it does.
