I posted on Tuesday this week about a new report from the Government Accountability Office that shows a significant number of corporations are playing fast and loose with their U.S. tax liabilities.

Notes from the Economy: Prices, Earnings, Unemployment Claims The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data for inflation and real earnings this morning, while the Labor Department reported on unemployment insurance claims for the past week.

What We Can Say and What We Can't The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report today showing that an average of two-thirds of companies operating in the United States paid no federal corporate income tax from 1998 - 2005. That's right, I said none. Zip. Zero. Nada. The report was requested by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Carl Levin (D-MI) as a follow up to a similar report GAO did in 2004 in which they found similar levels of tax liability reported on corporate tax returns from 1996 through 2000. In fact, in 2004, GAO found that domestically controlled companies and foreign controlled companies "reported tax liabilities of less than 5 percent of their total income, an estimated 94 percent and 89 percent, respectively, in 2000." Wow. Upwards of 90 percent of companies paid at most 5 percent in federal income taxes in 2000, despite the corporate income tax rate being 35 percent. While you digest that little tidbit (or maybe choke on it), let me tell you about transfer pricing, which is at the heart of these GAO reports and a long time thorn in the side of Sens. Dorgan and Levin, who I guess think corporations should pay taxes.

It's been a slow day here at the Budget Brigade, so I thought I'd bring your attention to the lastest round of quarterly "scores" agencies receive on the President's Management Agenda (PMA) scorecard. These scores measure the implementation of the PMA, or how well the major agencies are "executing the five government-wide management initiatives." Robert Brodsky from Government Executive Magazine has a rundown of the latest scores, which are not too good: