AXEC: New Foundations of Economics: Tax

Showing posts with label Tax. Show all posts

August 16, 2026

Occasional X: There is an absolute limit to the growth of public debt (VI)

“Almost there ... $40 trillion. 42% of all income taxes collected goes to paying interest on the US National Debt. US govt debt growing at $2.1 trillion per year. Most and more of the US govt budget is being swallowed by interest payments.” (Wall Street Mav)

The debt debate…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) August 16, 2026

July 15, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (X)

“Higher spending means that government will command a larger fraction of the nation’s resources, private individuals a smaller fraction.” (Milton Friedman)

This is the usual taxes-are-theft meme.

Taxes as such are not theft. Of course, they can become a kind of theft if, for… pic.twitter.com/JJRFv5P1Tg
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) July 15, 2026

April 13, 2026

Occasional X: The foul spirit of political economics (CCLXX)

“Keep your eye on how much the Government is spending because that is the true tax…as there IS NO SUCH THING as an unbalanced budget.” (Milton Friedman, quoted by Liz Churchill)

“ALL OF THIS IS TRUE…” (Liz Churchill)

No, not true. Milton Friedman never understood profit and,…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) April 13, 2026

April 12, 2026

Occasional X: How it works (CDLXIX)

“In most countries billionaires are self-made. They invent new products or services that drive progress.” (Michael Arouet)

Nice try to perpetuate a false narrative. That's not economics, but politics for a low-IQ audience. Michael Arouet never understood profit and, by logical…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) April 12, 2026

April 8, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (IX)

Yes, case 1 is the uncorrupted starting case. The household sector's first choice is how many private goods and how many public goods they want. This is analogous to the choice between red wine and white wine. The obvious problem is that not all households have the same…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) April 8, 2026

“Govt doesn't need tax revenue before it can spend. It spends by instructing the BoE to create central bank money (reserves) out of nothing, …” (?whispers?)

At this stage, the distinction between the Central Bank and the Commercial Banks is unnecessary. So, there are no…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) April 8, 2026

“When the government runs a deficit (G > T), the non‑government sector as a whole receives net financial assets equal to that deficit.” (?whispers?)

There is no such thing as the non‑government sector. That's the big MMT swindle. There is only the household sector and the…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) April 8, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (VIII)

“You can’t take taxes out, before you have put money into the system.” (?whispers?)

The bath-tube crowd is a bunch of economic morons.

There are two cases that have to be kept separate: a balanced public budget and deficit-spending/money-creation. The total amount of State… pic.twitter.com/AEIq8XQKWj
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) April 8, 2026

March 17, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (VII)

“Taxation is theft—not metaphorically, but literally.” (Handre)

Handre is wrong in all economic and moral dimensions.

There are two cases that have to be kept separate: a balanced public budget and deficit-spending/money-creation. The total amount of State spending has to be… pic.twitter.com/fVKQ4QTde2
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) March 17, 2026

March 9, 2026

Occasional X: How it works (CDLXI)

“The tax is there to create a demand for the government’s currency. Before anyone can pay the tax, someone has to do the work to earn the currency.” (Stephanie Kelton)

Stephanie Kelton is wrong in all economic and moral dimensions.

There are two cases that have to be kept… pic.twitter.com/e64RjfBi2J
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) March 9, 2026

February 20, 2026

Occasional X: The foul spirit of political economics (CCXVIII)

The 3-sector Profit Law Qm≡(G−T)+(I−Sm)+Yd implies PublicDeficit-Is-PrivateProfit. If tax T goes to a minimum/zero and spending G goes to a maximum, macroeconomic profit Qm goes to a maximum. The deficit (G−T) (co-)determines how big the Oligarchy's free lunch is.

Phil…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) February 20, 2026

Occasional X: How it works (CDLVI)

“Most people are told that the government has to collect taxes first, and then it uses that money to pay for schools, hospitals, roads and everything else. But in countries like the UK or US, that isn’t really how it works.” (Crazyhead)

It doesn't matter what people are told. It… pic.twitter.com/1G0PvlvnGv
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) February 20, 2026

February 8, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Breakdown (XXI)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

There is an absolute upper limit for the growth of public debt, which is given by public_debt times avg_interest ≦wage_income. Economic problems, though, start much earlier because of other irreducible items in the budget.

Analogous to private…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) February 8, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (VI)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“The government doesn’t have any money. Only people have money.” (Milton Friedman)

“People don’t have any money. Only people who work for the Oligarchy get money.” (AXEC)

Milton Friedman never understood profit and, by consequence, how the economic… pic.twitter.com/nUNsgFv4gn
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) February 8, 2026

Also at Thomas Sowell Quotes

February 6, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (V)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“Inflation didn’t arise from war or pestilence. At the risk of speaking plainly, inflation arose from a government that spent too much and a central bank that printed too much. If the government lived with less, its citizens would live with more.”… pic.twitter.com/E01FBupFns
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) February 6, 2026

January 30, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (IV)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“The middle class in Europe is the one really squeezed by absurd overtaxation. And when you add another 20% VAT on top of that, it makes one want to cry. Got it now?” (Michael Arouet)

It seems that the anti-State reflex is more a psychological than… pic.twitter.com/BkXtWjcu6o
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) January 30, 2026

January 23, 2026

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (III)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“Food, shelter, electricity, and healthcare don’t exist by wishing. They require labor, production, expertise, and time. Declaring them 'guaranteed regardless of income' doesn’t make them free. It just shifts the burden onto others by force. That… pic.twitter.com/uNYILcws7R
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) January 23, 2026

January 21, 2026

Occasional X: How it works (CDXLI)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“Larry is right, the economy is rigged. He rigged it.” (Warren Gunnels)

That the economy appears to be rigged is bad, but that economics has been rigged for 200+ years is worse. In the grand scheme of things, only science counts. The rest is…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) January 21, 2026

January 19, 2026

Occasional X: How it works (CDXXXII)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“At the peak of the Gilded Age in 1910, the richest 0.00001% of the US population owned wealth equal to 4% of national income. Now, the richest 0.00001% owns 12%. US billionaire oligarchs today are even wealthier than the original robber barons.”…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) January 19, 2026

Also at Michael Arouet.

December 31, 2025

Occasional X: How it works (CDXXX)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“Why do you pay taxes if the government can print all the money?” (Bukele explains the U.S. Dollar; Lord Bebo)

Mr. Bukele never understood profit and, by consequence, how the economic system works.

The free-market economy, a.k.a. Capitalism, runs…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) December 31, 2025

December 29, 2025

Occasional X: The futile attempt to recycle Milton Friedman (XLVII)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“The government doesn’t have any money. Only people have money. The government only gets money by putting its hand in your pocket and taking it out.” (Milton Friedman)

Taxes as such are not theft. Of course, they can become a kind of theft, if, for… pic.twitter.com/GQd9S0jqcl
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) December 29, 2025

December 20, 2025

Occasional X: Clueless economists / Tax (II)

#Economics #AllYouNeedToKnow

“Taxes aren’t a funding mechanism. Taxes don’t fund a currency issuing government.” (Malcolm Reavell)

The simplified national accounts below ⇓ show two economies, one (0) without tax, and one (1) with tax.

In (0), the workers spend their entire…
— AXEC (@EgmontHandtke) December 20, 2025

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Knowledge only — no opinion

Science does not explain everything, but non-science explains nothing.

Neither orthodox nor heterodox economics satisfies the scientific criteria of material and formal consistency.

Economists cannot explain how the economy works. The Profit Theory is false since Adam Smith. There is much opinion and little knowledge.

Opinion is the realm of political economics, knowledge is the realm of theoretical economics.

Political economics is scientifically worthless.

Theoretical economics is built upon clearly stated premises, i.e., upon a set of axioms.

Orthodoxy got the axiomatic foundations wrong and Heterodoxy has none at all.

Economics is a failed science. Economists are incompetent scientists.

Profit

Neither Classicals, nor Walrasians, nor Marshallians, nor Marxians, nor Keynesians, nor Institutionialists, nor Monetary Economists, nor MMTers, nor Austrians, nor Sraffaians, nor Evolutionists, nor Game theorists, nor EconoPhysicists, nor RBCers, nor New Keynesians, nor New Classicals ever came to grips with profit. Hence, they all fail to capture the essence of the market economy.

Because of this, economists have nothing to offer in the way of a scientifically founded economic policy guidance.

The hybrid science

As a first approximation, one can agree on the general characteristic that the economy is a complex system.

However, with the term system one usually associates a structure with components that are non-human. In order to stress the obvious fact that humans are an essential component of the economic system the market economy should be characterized more precisely as a complex hybrid human/system entity.

The scientific method is straightforwardly applicable to the sys-component but not to the hum-component. While it is clear that the economy always has to be treated as an indivisible whole, for good methodological reasons the analysis has to start with the objective system-component.

In gestalt-psychological terms the economic system is the foreground, individual behavior the background. Common sense wrongly insists that the hum-component must always be in the foreground. This fallacy compares to geo-centrism. The economic system has its own logic which is different from the behavioral logic of humans. The systemic logic is what Adam Smith called the Invisible Hand.

There are systemic laws but no behavioral laws. Systemic laws have the same methodological status as physical laws.

Neither Orthodoxy nor Heterodoxy can tell what the systemic laws of the actual monetary economy are.

Whether the outcome of the human/system-interaction is good or bad is a politcal question that lies outside of theoretical economics. Theoretical economics explains how the actual economy works - no less, no more.

Narrative vs.Theory

Psychological, sociological or behavioral assumptionism cannot yield anything other than a gossip model of the world. Second-guessing the agents is not economic analysis.

Science deals exclusively with propositions that can in principle be decided by objective means. The rest is opinion, faith, phantasy, motive speculation, allegation, hallucination, myth, paranoia, ink-blot association, psychology, philosophy, in one word: storytelling.

Storytelling is the original mode of communication in the social realm — except science.

Political economics is storytelling and, by default, the natural habitat of confused confusers. Walrasianism, Keynesianism, Marxianism, Austrianism are social narratives and not scientifically valid representations of reality.

"The truth is, most persons, not excepting professional economists, are satisfied with very hazy notions." (Fisher)

In marked contrast, theoretical economics lives up to the standards of material and formal consistency. A scientific theory is the best mental representation of reality that is humanly possible.

Theory starts with a set of objective and consistent axioms.

Paradigm Shift

"The problem is not just to say that something might be wrong, but to replace it by something — and that is not so easy." (Feynman)

"As will become evident, there is more agreement on the defects of orthodox theory than there is on what theory is to replace it: but all agreed that the point of the criticism is to clear the ground for construction." (Nell)

"The moral of the story is simply this: it takes a new theory, and not just the destructive exposure of assumptions or the collection of new facts, to beat an old theory." (Blaug)

"Is it not a fact, which stares at us from the histories of all sciences, that it is much more difficult for the human mind to forge the most elementary conceptual schemes than it is to elaborate the most complicated superstructure when those elements are well in hand?" (Schumpeter)

"The task of producing knowledge against the grain requires imagination." (Mirowski)

"A new idea is extremely difficult to think of. It takes a fantastic imagination." (Feynman)

"The scientific imagination dreams of explanations and laws." (Peirce)

"It is brilliance of imagination which makes the glory of science." (Evans)

"... we know little more now about ‘how the economy works,’ ... than we knew in 1790, after Adam Smith completed the last revision of The Wealth of Nations." (Clower)

Selftest and to watch for

You apply one of these items

• supply-demand-equilibrium,

• general equilibrium,

• marginal utility,

• well-behaved production functions,

• total income = value of output,

• total income = wages + profits,

• I=S,

• wage rate down - employment up,

• behavioral axioms?

Then you are out of science because of unnoticed material or formal inconsistency.

Every economist who uses the concept of equilibrium is scientifically incompetent because she/he failed to notice that equilibrium is an economic nonentity.

Practically this means: as soon as the word equilibrium appears in an economic text it can be thrown into the waste basket. The same holds for all other nonentities.

The vast majority of economists deals mainly with nonentities. This is why Walrasianism, Keynesianism, Marxianism, Austrianism is scientifically worthless.

Since Adam Smith, economic policy guidance has no sound scientific foundations.

To be replaced (1)

The core premises of Orthodoxy are uncertain and false and this fully explains the failure of the research program.

“As with any Lakatosian research program, the neo-Walrasian program is characterized by its hard core, heuristics, and protective belts. Without asserting that the following characterization is definitive, I have argued that the program is organized around the following propositions: HC1 economic agents have preferences over outcomes; HC2 agents individually optimize subject to constraints; HC3 agent choice is manifest in interrelated markets; HC4 agents have full relevant knowledge; HC5 observable outcomes are coordinated, and must be discussed with reference to equilibrium states.” (Weintraub)

The inescapable Paradigm Shift consists of the move from this obsolete hard core to the superior set of structural axioms.

To be replaced (2)

The fundamental equations of macroeconomics have been formulated by Keynes in two lines.

"Income = value of output = consumption + investment. Saving = income - consumption. Therefore saving = investment."

This elementary syllogism is demonstrably false. The demonstration consists in the proof that Keynes could not solve the Profit Puzzle. Neither did Post-Neo-New-Keynesians.

In the most general terms, the economics Paradigm Shift consists in switching from the behavior-centric bottom-up approach to the structure-centric top-down approach. This is comparable to the Copernican turn from geo-centrism to helio-centrism.

Consensus

Economics is a science without scientists. Because they are ignorant of the elementary difference between profit and income, the present generation of economists has not made and cannot make a significant contribution to the discussion about how the actual economy works.

Every orthodox or heterodox economist can convince himself/herself that their profit theory is defective.

Every non-economist can — by applying elementary logic — convince himself that conventional profit theories are false. See 'How the intelligent non-economist can refute every economist hands down'.

Because the profit theory is false the whole of conventional economic theory has to be rejected.

"What is now taught as standard economic theory will eventually disappear, no trace of it will remain in the universities or boardrooms because it simply doesn’t work: were it engineering, the bridge would collapse." (McCauley)

No scientist will ever accept Walrasianism, Keynesianism, Marxianism, or Austrianism. These approaches are logically and/or empirically refuted. This is the actual methodological state-of-art. Walrasians, Keynesians, Marxians, or Austrians are still at the proto-scientific stage. These approaches cannot be improved, only abandoned.

Economists are a public nuisance because they have an opinion on everything but knowledge of nothing.

About me

“Bottom line is that your profit law is just a definition you made up nobody else agrees with, nobody. You are all alone with your precious tautology.” Barkley Rosser

“In any event, your entire theory is based on you doing macro accounting in wacky fashion that nobody agrees with.” Brian Romanchuk

"Your stuff is at least original: it's quite cool after a couple of decades at this to see a fresh Economics. But real promises are not advanced: they were around for millennia until the Greeks obscured them with Metaphysics." Chris Cook

"No mate, they're you-blockers. You have all the personality traits of a crank, and the rest of them have tired of you. You could be 100% right, and you'd still die as your only follower." Steve Keen

"What you are doing fills is all with joy, your constructive critique is most welcome!"

Achim Truger,

German Council of Economic Experts,

in a failed attempt to be ironic

"200+ years of thought and yet you are the only one who gets it—or even understands your argument. Thank god we have you, pseudonymous Twitter user. Otherwise no one would know."

William Luther

Assistant Professor of Economics

in a failed attempt to be funny

"Egmonts profit law is the perfect equation that demonstrates this in action. Put the equation into a spreadsheet and then add government spending and watch how it flows into profits. Enter in some debt (-Sm) and watch too how that flows into profits. It can't go anywhere else."

Dean

About the rest of economics

Walrasianism, Keynesianism, Marxianism, Austrianism, MMT, Pluralism are mutually contradictory, axiomatically false, materially/ formally inconsistent. Economics is a failed science.

“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” Leonardo da Vinci

In economics, the overwhelming majority belongs to Class III. This explains why economics is after 200+ years still at the proto-scientific level.

The obvious task for every economist is to advance from cargo cult science and political agenda-pushing to science. This is absolutely beyond the means of Class III people.

For 200+ years now, economists are not scientists but agenda pushers, useful idiots, clowns in the political Circus Maximus.

Nopopop

This blog does not add to any popular/un- popular opinion.

This blog does not hand out advice about how to avoid taxes, to get rich on the stock market, to be successful in business, to increase the wealth of nations, to run an economy, to maximize welfare, to prevent national/global bankruptcy, to improve the institutional setup of society, to get out of national/global depression, nor about how to save humankind or any subgroup thereof.

This blog is about the true theory of the actual monetary economy.

"In order to tell the politicians and practitioners something about causes and best means, the economist needs the true theory or else he has not much more to offer than educated common sense or his personal opinion." (Stigum)

Focus

Science is of primary interest and importance. Scientists are of secondary interest.

With regard to science, most people lose focus easily because of a natural preference for anecdotes and gossip over facts or subjectivity over objectivity.

Hence, Schumpeter once considered it necessary to remind his habitually disoriented fellow economists: “Remember: occasionally, it may be an interesting question to ask why a man says what he says; but whatever the answer, it does not tell us anything about whether what he says is true or false.”

Science is about true/false and nothing else.

Disclaimer

Missing Blog-Reference links: AXEC does not guarantee that their comments can at any time be recovered from where they have been posted intitially because the availability depends on the publication policy of the blog owner which is implicitly accepted on entering a debate. See also: 'Economists: Incompetent? Stupid? Corrupt?'

Texts: Parts of arbitrary length of any of the author's texts is and will be used again by the author in papers, books, websites, blogs, and other media without explicit reference. The right to make corrections or minor textual improvements on reutilization is reserved. Therefore, it is always a good idea to double-check for the latest version.

Caution: Do not expect a corroboration of your political view. Neither a refutation. Political economics has been scientifically worthless since Adam Smith. Politics has to be separated from economics because it is categorically different from science. The best science can do and has always done is to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you have been objectively wrong or ignorant until now. Science goes beyond the naive common sense of today and becomes the sophisticated common sense of tomorrow.

See also Terms of Use and Legal at www.AXEC.org

Outlook

To recall, while political economics is storytelling, theoretical economics adheres to scientific standards.

The first task of theoretical economics is to get the axiomatic foundations right. This is what J. S. Mill called the opus magnum. Neither Orthodoxy nor Heterodoxy came up with a reasonable solution to this day. This explains the secular stagnation of economics.

There is no serious alternative to structural axiomatic economics. This is not a matter of opinion but of proof. The sole criteria are material and formal consistency.

All of economics has to be reconstructed from the ground up.

Major economic policy implication

The price mechanism does not work as standard economics hypothesizes. The axiom-based Employment Law states that overall employment increases if the average wage rate increases relative to average price and productivity. This gives one the lever to improve the employment situation all over the world and to fend off deflation without rising debt and without artificial capacity growth. To increase the average price relative to the average wage rate and productivity increases unemployment.

Right policy depends on true theory.

“In order to tell the politicians and practitioners something about causes and best means, the economist needs the true theory or else he has not much more to offer than educated common sense or his personal opinion.” (Stigum)

Lacking the true theory, economists promote for more than 200 years opinion instead of knowledge.