Industrial policy intrudes on our sovereignty as consumers to protect politically favored jobs. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux Aug. 12, 2024 5:11 pm ET Since Adam Smith debunked mercantilism in “The Wealth of Nations” (1776), the political appeal of trade protectionism has centered on its ability to benefit a privileged few...
Read more
Category Archives: Uncategorized
WSJ-Who Pays Corporate Taxes? Look in the Mirror
Costs are passed on to consumers. If you work for and invest in companies, you get hit three times. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon April 23, 2024 1:48 pm ET In his call for Congress to repeal the 2017 tax cuts and increase corporate tax rates, President Biden asked: “Are...
Read more
WSJ-Biden Wants to Put AI on a Leash
Bill Clinton’s regulators, by contrast, produced prosperity by encouraging freedom on the internet. By Ted Cruz and Phil Gramm March 25, 2024 4:22 pm ET The arrival of a new productive technology doesn’t guarantee prosperity. Prosperity requires a system, governed by the rule of law, in which economic actors can freely implement...
Read more
WSJ-The ‘Gender Pay Gap’ Is a Myth That Won’t Go Away

The difference in wages is the natural consequence of choices that men and women freely make. By Phil Gramm and John Early March 8, 2024 5:30 pm ET Tuesday, March 12, is “equal pay day,” according to the National Committee on Pay Equity, a coalition of advocacy groups. Originally, the date...
Read more
WSJ-The High Cost of the Trump-Biden Tariffs

The evidence shows they benefited a politically connected few, while U.S. consumers and producers paid the bill. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux Jan. 17, 2024 11:45 am ET ‘National conservative†protectionists portray themselves as the adults in the room. They allege that free traders’ focus on consumption imperils...
Read more
WSJ-A Fiscal Commission on the National Debt? Good Luck With That

The best way to avert a crisis is to reform entitlement spending. The next best way is growth. By Jeb Hensarling and Mike Solon Jan. 11, 2024 6:21 pm ET As Congress begins a new session, the price of government expansion during the pandemic is coming into sharper focus. The...
Read more
WSJ-Social Security Was Doomed From the Start

The fatal flaw was FDR’s decision to make it a pay-as-you-go benefit. We should have fixed it by now. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Dec. 19, 2023 6:29 pm ET Americans imagine that the Social Security benefits they are promised belong to them. That’s by design. In 1935, President Franklin...
Read more
WSJ-Another Wrong Way to Measure Poverty

The real rate is 2.5%, but the Census Bureau inflates it by excluding most social-welfare benefits. By Phil Gramm and John Early Dec. 5, 2023 6:33 pm ET The credibility of the Census Bureau’s official measure of poverty didn’t survive the pandemic. Though government payments for social benefits rose by...
Read more
WSJ-Biden Gets European Help for His Big-Government Agenda

When Congress and the courts say no, his agencies recruit foreigners to apply pressure here at home. By Phil Gramm and Jeb Hensarling Oct. 17, 2023 6:15 pm ET American exceptionalism, the product of economic freedom and source of our prosperity, is being threatened by the Biden administration, which seeks...
Read more
WSJ-Trump’s Trade War Was a Loser
Tariffs destroyed jobs in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and made all Americans worse off. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux Sept. 11, 2023 5:29 pm ET Donald Trump boasts that his protectionist policies were “historically successful,†which suggests that he thinks he’s exempt from the old dictum that we are...
Read more