Alan Auerbach

Alan Auerbach Comments on Herman Cain’s ‘9-9-9’ Tax Plan

-San Francisco Chronicle, October 5, 2011 by Joe Garofoli
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/04/MNAM1LDF8C.DTL

“Cain is sort of out there on Mars, saying we’re going to cut revenues below what anyone else is proposing,” Auerbach said. “I don’t know how this can be taken seriously.”

-The Sacramento Bee, October 13, 2011 by Alana Semuels
(Go to G:Law School in the NewsNews Clips for article)

There’s an economic argument for simplicity, too, said Alan Auerbach…. Scrapping the current complicated tax system would reduce the difficulty taxpayers have in complying with the IRS, and would make it more difficult for people to avoid paying taxes.

Alan Auerbach Analyzes Gov Brown’s Jobs Plan

The Sacramento Bee, August 31, 2011 by David Siders
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/31/3873672/jerry-brown-talks-jobs-now-that.html

“To a large extent, jobs in California are hostage to jobs in the United States,” said Alan Auerbach, an economist at UC Berkeley. “You can’t separate the California economy from the U.S. economy. That’s really beyond the governor’s reach.” Still, Auerbach said, through broad policy initiatives a governor “can essentially force an industry to grow.” He cited as an example Brown’s signing in April of legislation requiring California utilities to obtain one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Alan Auerbach Analyzes Proposed Reforms to Corporate Tax Rate

The Washington Post with Bloomberg, August 12, 2011 by Brad Plumer
http://wapo.st/p9iAdd

“It’s true that drastically reducing the corporate tax rate would make the U.S. a more attractive place to invest — and probably turn us into a tax haven,” says Alan Auerbach, a tax expert at the University of California at Berkeley. But, he notes, how would you make up the revenue?

Alan Auerbach Questions Deficit Plan

The New York Times, August 4, 2011 by Catherine Rampell
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/us/politics/05deficit.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt

Previous efforts by Congress to bind its own hands have almost always failed. “I’m a skeptic about these kinds of things,” said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “You’re sort of saying, ‘I can’t control myself, so I’m putting in this external mechanism to control myself, but I’m also in control of the external mechanism.'”

Alan Auerbach Addresses UC Fee Hikes

The Sacramento Bee, July 24, 2011 by Kevin Yamamura
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3790500/california-lowers-taxes-raises.html

Because of the way financial aid works, the general belief is that low-income families will still be spared from tuition hikes, while upper-income families can afford to absorb them. Alan Auerbach, an economist and tax expert at UC Berkeley, said that “as unpopular as higher tuition is, if we think about the subsidies implicit in very low tuition, some relatively affluent people are benefiting from it.”

Alan Auerbach Supports Higher Tax Law Provision for Wealthy

San Francisco Chronicle, July 20, 2011 by Joe Garofoli
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/20/MNCO1KCA06.DTL

“It makes more sense to think of these individuals as earning this as compensation. They’re not business owners. They’re getting this percentage of the returns that the company is making as compensation for their work. If it were paid as wages and salaries, they’d be taxed at ordinary income rates.”