Arizona also raised its sales tax a full percentage point, from 5.6% to 6.6%, but since it started from a higher base, the increased hit was proportionally a bit less, 18%.
"Next year could be a great year for the business but a tougher year for the stocks," he said, because the stocks are starting from a higher base.
Servers will then double-dip, so to speak: they will benefit from a higher base wage while their tips also increase as menu prices climb.
As poor migrants start families in Spain and Italy, numbers there will rocket; in France and Germany, where some Muslims are middle-class, rises will be more modest though from a higher base.
But the numbers are confusing: J.D. Power Asia, an automotive market-research firm, reckons Geely sold more cars than that, but from a higher base, leaving its growth slightly below that of the market as a whole.
There's no certainty, but it's reasonable to figure that we're looking at something similar this time but starting from a higher base.
"When there's trouble in emerging markets, Mexico gets hit just as hard as everyone else, if not more, because it's coming from a higher base," Cournoyer replies.
Democrats are doing better, too, but they start from a higher base.
Indeed, private institutions have seen much lower percent increases, never having depended to the same extent on state support, although we are obviously starting from a higher base in most cases.
One reason the Fed's go-slow approach is wrongheaded, Mr. Paulsen said, is that in 1994, when policy makers raised rates, they were starting from a much higher base.
