Much Ado About Nothing

Thursday was much ado about nothing, or at least that’s what it felt like. We got the tax plan and we got Powell, but we didn’t much in the way of fireworks.

Here’s Powell promising not screw up with Trump standing in the background nodding and quite clearly thinking about something that isn’t monetary policy:

Jerome Powell: “I’m committed to making decisions with objectivity…in [Fed’s] long-standing tradition of monetary policy independence.” pic.twitter.com/Q4TfyMdgKL

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 2, 2017

And rewinding to the moments before that, here’s Trump making the announcement:

BREAKING NEWS: President #Trump has selected Federal Reserve board member Jerome Powell as the next chairman of the nation’s central bank. pic.twitter.com/TSaLjtkcVo

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 2, 2017

He also thanked Yellen without mentioning all of the things he’s said about her before, but that’s ok, because we can tell you what it would have sounded like if he had:

“a wonderful woman who is also doing political things and also should be ashamed of herself. but other than that, a wonderful woman”

— Walter White (@heisenbergrpt) November 2, 2017

We also got the tax “plan” on Thursday. It proposes lowering the corporate tax rate to 20%, but you already know that. Here’s a summary from NY Times (more here) for those who were lucky enough to miss it:

The plan establishes three tax brackets, 12, 25 and 35 percent, and also keeps a top rate of 39.6 percent for the highest-earners, collapsing the total number of brackets from seven.

The proposal roughly doubles the standard deduction for middle-class families, expanding it to $24,000 for married couples, from $12,700, and setting it at $12,000 for individuals, from $6,530 today.

After much nail-biting debate, the House will not make any changes to the pretax treatment of 401(k) plans.

One of the biggest flashpoints will be proposed changes to the popular mortgage interest deduction. Under the Republican plan, existing homeowners can keep the deduction, but future purchases will be capped at $500,000.

Estate tax eventually repealed, phasing it out entirely in six years.

One of the biggest flashpoints will be how the bill treats the state and local tax deduction, which lawmakers are proposing to limit to property taxes and cap at $10,000. That will not be enough for Republicans in some high-tax states, where middle-class families make heavy use of the deduction.