The 2017 corporate tax cuts triggered the blue-collar wage boom. Higher rates would reverse it. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon April 6, 2021 6:18 pm ET The Biden administration has proposed an array of corporate tax increases with a goal of raising some $1.33 trillion over the next 10 years. That’s three...
Read more
Category Archives: Fiscal Policy
WSJ: The Risks of Too Much ‘Stimulus’
Disposable real per capita income rose 5.5% in 2020, the highest rate since 1984, due largely to transfer payments. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Feb. 2, 2021 6:17 pm ET Even among economists who strongly support President Biden, a consensus is growing that the economy emerged from last year set for a...
Read more
WSJ: Voters’ Choice: Growth or Stagnation
Before the shutdown, the economy was booming. Credit Trump’s policies, not Obama and Biden’s. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon July 8, 2020 1:10 pm ET The year began with a recovery that belied every negative cliché about the Trump tax cuts and regulatory reform. Tax cuts demagogued as giveaways to the rich...
Read more
WSJ: Why the Fed May Not Duck Inflation This Time
Banks’ excess reserves limited the money supply after 2008, but looser rules today might give way. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon May 28, 2020 7:08 pm ET Is there any limit to the power Congress is willing to give to the Federal Reserve? Since 2008 lawmakers have granted the Fed the ability...
Read more
WSJ: More ‘Stimulus’ Would Crush the Recovery
Federal borrowing this year is set to pass 20% of GDP. That will raise costs across the private economy. By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon April 14, 2020 12:44 pm ET A democracy’s greatest challenge arises when it confronts a major crisis during an election, since the critical need for serious...
Read more
WSJ: The Plot to Politicize Banking
Liberal lawmakers and activists want banks to lend to favored groups and deny the ‘undesirables.’ By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon Jan. 14, 2020 6:59 pm ET To resist President Trump’s campaign of economic reform and deregulation, his critics usually attempt to portray long-overdue, common-sense policies as assaults on the poor....
Read more
WSJ: Warren’s Assault on Retiree Wealth
Her vision of ‘accountable capitalism’ would destroy savings built over a lifetime—and sink the economy. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Sept. 10, 2019 6:41 pm ET Who owns the vast wealth of America? Old folks. According to the Federal Reserve, households headed by people over the age of 55 own...
Read more
WSJ: How to Balance the Budget—Again
A GOP Congress and a Democratic president struck an unlikely deal in 1997. It succeeded. By Michael Solon Aug. 4, 2019 5:48 pm ET The budget deal between the president, the Democratic House and the Republican Senate eliminated the risk of debt default, government shutdown and a spending sequester for...
Read more
WSJ: Who Pays for Student-Debt Forgiveness?
Taxpayers who didn’t go to college, didn’t take on debt, or paid it off already. By Michael Solon June 26, 2019 6:47 pm ET Democrats have begun a bidding war over student-debt forgiveness. Joe Biden proposes to expand it for public-school teachers. Elizabeth Warren wants to forgive 75% of all...
Read more
WSJ- Has the Federal Reserve Lost Its Mojo?
The central bank has less control over market interest rates today than at any time in its history. By Phil Gramm and Thomas R. Saving June 17, 2019 7:17 p.m. ET When the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting concluded last month, reporters focused on the federal-funds rate, announcing that it would...
Read more