It’s not uncommon for state and local elections to get lost in the shuffle of a presidential election year. That might alarm America’s Founding Fathers, who no doubt expected us to pay far more attention to local elections than federal, but that’s another story altogether. The reality is that state elections have significant implications for the rest of the country in the way they can affect economic activity and create incentives — both intended and unintended.

It seems California took advantage of the opportunity this year to create some incentives for both businesses and individuals … to move elsewhere. As readers may already know, California voters passed propositions to raise a host of taxes, including income taxes, sales taxes and business taxes (in the form of closing loopholes out-of-state businesses were using to lower their overall tax burden).

Let’s take these in turn, starting with income taxes. Proposition 30 creates four high-income tax brackets with increasing marginal rates: 10.3% on taxable income between $250,000 and $300,000, 11.3% on taxable income between $300,000 and $500,000, 12.3% on taxable income between $500,000 and $1 million and 13.3% on taxable income over $1 million. Read 

Setting aside all political considerations, investors need to be aware that Obamacare — in conjunction with stagflation — is going to send the U.S. economy into another recession. Much of this has to do with the law’s effect on employment and how it dovetails with other macro issues that are unfolding in the economy. Let me explain — and tell you what to do about it.

Immediately following Obama’s re-election, several notable companies announced lay-offs. The ostensible reason was that Obamacare requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance or face a large fine. Thus, small businesses that have just over 50 employees cut some loose, while others with just under 50 simply don’t hire anyone else.

Other companies are cutting back hours for workers from 40 to 30, which exempts them from health insurance requirements since only full-time employees are entitled to insurance. This is — and will — take place at many major corporations. Read 

While other politicians, pundits, and economists fuss and fret over the impending fiscal cliff at the end of the year, the Senate appears to be taking a “What, me worry?” approach to the looming crisis.

With only a few weeks left to get a deal done on the fiscal cliff, the Senate elected to go on recess last Thursday, a break that will last until after Thanksgiving. They left having made no progress on several key pieces of legislation, including a fiscal cliff deal, a defense bill, and a bill on cybersecurity.

Heck, things are so bogged down in the Senate that a popular hunting and and sportsmen bill that has been on the floor since before the general election still hasn’t been voted on. The Senate opted to wait until next week to tackle that one. Read 

Now that the 2012 presidential election is over, it’s time to start guessing who might run for the nation’s top political office in 2016.

With President Barack Obama having broken the Oval Office’s racial barrier, some political observers think 2016 could be the right moment to smash the White House’s glass ceiling and elect the nation’s first female chief executive.

The prospect of a woman president is getting easier to imagine as both Democrats and Republicans have a number of rising female stars. Read 

Perhaps it’s a bit early, but Mitt Romney doesn’t appear to have learned much from his defeat at the hands of President Barack Obama last Tuesday.

In an call with some of his top donors yesterday, Romney said that he lost for this reason: “The president’s campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift. He made a big effort on small things.”

Romney said that these groups included blacks, Hispanics, and young voters. He also blamed his defeat on Obama painting him as anti-immigrant. Read 

More bad news fell on the U.S. Postal Service today, as it announced a $15.9 billion loss for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30.

The loss was more than triple last year’s loss, as the agency was charged $11.1 billion for not paying into its future retiree health benefits fund, defaulting on two payments in August and October for the first time ever. Nearly $5 billion in other losses came from a loss in mailing revenue. The agency also hit its $15 billion borrowing limit from the treasury.

The postal service has been trying for almost a year now to convince Congress to pass legislation to help them out. They want to eliminate Saturday deliveries, reduce the payments necessary for the future retiree health fund, and allow delivery of beer and wine. The Senate passed legislation giving the postal service most of what it wanted, but the House has yet to act on it. Read