Here's the list of tax hikes included in H.R. 3962.

The American Booksellers Association loves people who buy books. It loves them so much that it wants to protect them from wicked retailers who sell popular titles at affordable prices.

It's not actually health plans that are taxed at 40%, but the aggregate benefits that relate to health care that employers offer, regardless of whether they are funded by the employee or employer. The limits apply not only to employer-sponsored medical care but also to vision and dental plans.

The fiscal reality of government subsidies to pay for mandated health insurance is that not all income groups can receive equal subsidies; as a family earns more, its subsidy would probably decrease, eventually falling to zero. But then we are taking money away from the poor as they climb into higher income categories.

Businesses are somewhat divided about such a policy, with some companies expressing reservations about whether this idea will generate much new hiring, while others support it. It might seem odd that what apparently is a very pro-business program has detractors among leaders in the business world.

What people get paid is best left to the marketplace.But Goldman Sachs is different because it was propped up with our money. Not the money they took directly from the government and paid back. The money that AIG gave them that really came from the taxpayer. Goldman Sachs being proud of their performance this year is like the Harlem Globetrotters bragging that they went undefeated. It's not really a normal competition.

Remember when health-care reform was supposed to make life better for the middle class? That dream began to unravel this past summer when Congress proposed a bill that failed to include any competition-based reforms that would actually bend the curve of health-care costs. It fell apart completely when Democrats began papering over the gaping holes their plan would rip in the federal budget.

The sudden rise in home prices suggests that the psychology of the market has shifted substantially. But what should we expect in the months ahead? Not necessarily that we’re entering a new housing boom. To a large extent, where we’re heading depends on what home buyers are thinking.

The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.

The U.S. Senate’s version of Obamacare finally is emerging into broad daylight.For all the rhetoric, the plan is quite easy to sketch, thanks in part to an analysis by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

The common theme underlying the prize this year is that markets do not solve all problems of resource allocation and incentives well or even at all. That is not a new idea. What is important is that people and societies find ways through organizational structures and arrangements, political and other institutions, values, incentives and recognition, and the careful management of information, to solve these problems.

Talk of another federal economic stimulus package is gaining momentum largely because federal officials are beginning to realize that state governments will be worse off next year compared to the first two years of the recession.

TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, is a year old now. On Sept. 19, 2008, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the need for a $700 billion program to purchase toxic assets held by banks to prevent a financial meltdown, and after some modification Congress rapidly approved TARP on Oct. 3. Looking back after a year, was TARP necessary? Did it work?

The answers are No, and No.

A second leg of recession will occur if America's small-business sector doesn't expand. It's about the small-business economy, stupid.

Does President Obama have a secret plan to raise taxes on middle-class Americans — and,well, pretty much everybody else — with a European-style, value-added tax? Actually, it’s not such a big secret.

Early data from New York show the higher tax rates for the wealthy have yielded lower-than-expected state wealth. Gov. David Paterson, who had always warned targeting the rich could backfire, fears that's just what happened.