Though American manufacturing is losing 50, 000 jobs a month, past downturns have typically seen lay-offs at twice that rate.

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The average U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%, not counting discounts and write-offs, with many in Congress calling for it to be reduced to 25%.

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Though the maximum tax rate is lower for the AMT, most of the standard write-offs aren't allowed.

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With the unemployment rate heading towards 10%, politicians understandably fear the mass lay-offs that big plant closures would bring.

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The former number is big because banks are thriving in the low-interest rate environment, but the latter is small or minus because it comes after the write-offs of bad loans.

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Economists argue about the disincentive effects of higher tax rates. (Messrs Piketty and Saez, the economists who have transformed analysis of income concentration at the top, reckon, controversially, that the optimal top income-tax rate could be as high as 80%.) But no one doubts that there are trade-offs.

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