Marketplace Morning Report for Tuesday June 24, 2014
There's a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the AT&T/DirecTV merger tomorrow. Executives from AT&T and DirecTV will argue why their proposed $48.5 billion deal should pass antitrust muster. We report on why they’ll be opposed and what arguments they’ll make. Also, DC’s city council will vote on a budget proposal today that includes a controversial “yoga tax.” In fact, the package of tax reforms would expand sales taxes to health clubs, yoga studios, car washes, and bowling alleys. In other words: more of the service sector, which is an expanding part of our economy. D.C. yogis are up in arms (as much as yogis can be), but others are making the argument that cities should tax more of the service sector, rather than just folks who sell goods, because that’s where our economy is heading. And after, guess what. Not even the Great Recession could create a bump in homelessness, according to a recent report. Some advocates credit a strategy called "housing first," which keeps the hardest-to-serve, chronic homeless off the streets and supports them with services. We investigate.
There’s a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the AT&T/DirecTV merger tomorrow. Executives from AT&T and DirecTV will argue why their proposed $48.5 billion deal should pass antitrust muster. We report on why they’ll be opposed and what arguments they’ll make. Also, DC’s city council will vote on a budget proposal today that includes a controversial “yoga tax.” In fact, the package of tax reforms would expand sales taxes to health clubs, yoga studios, car washes, and bowling alleys. In other words: more of the service sector, which is an expanding part of our economy. D.C. yogis are up in arms (as much as yogis can be), but others are making the argument that cities should tax more of the service sector, rather than just folks who sell goods, because that’s where our economy is heading. And after, guess what. Not even the Great Recession could create a bump in homelessness, according to a recent report. Some advocates credit a strategy called “housing first,” which keeps the hardest-to-serve, chronic homeless off the streets and supports them with services. We investigate.
