charity Archives

Bogus Benevolence

By Econ70 | 08/23/2013

The Friday File: Organizations often promise that 10%, 20%, or even all profits go to charity, while other firms promise that a percentage of revenues go to charity. Of course charitable giving is always good, but as a curmudgeonly economist, I much prefer the latter approach because it gives firms no incentive to boost salaries…

Cheap Charity

By Econ70 | 01/15/2013

By raising marginal tax rates for the upper 1% of the population from 35% to 39.6%, passage of the fiscal cliff avoidance bill will encourage increased charitable giving by the rich because it’s cheaper! To be precise, it’s 7.8% cheaper even after the phase-out of Schedule A deductions is considered. This unintended consequence will result…