The first Treasury secretary backed tariffs mostly to raise revenue and promote free trade. By Phil Gramm And Donald J. Boudreaux July 8, 2026 12:23 pm ET Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have invoked the policies of the first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, as precedents for President Trump’s trade agenda. Hamilton,...

It widened the deficit—not by cutting the top rate, but purely by relieving families from automatic increases through bracket creep. By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon June 19, 2026 2:11 pm ET No major economic policy in modern American history is as misunderstood or inaccurately portrayed as President Reagan’s 1981 tax...

By Michael Solon Michael Solon is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. The backlash against artificial intelligence is not the first time Americans have tried to strangle their own prosperity. Since the fall of the Roman Empire mankind had known only stagnation – living no better than his ancestors. With...

The burden of new tariffs more than offsets the benefit of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon April 28, 2026 1:07 pm ET Republicans are counting on voters being pleasantly surprised by larger-than-expected tax refunds this spring thanks to new tax cuts from the...

Trump’s tariffs didn’t spur economic growth but did encourage trade between spurned U.S. partners. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux April 1, 2026 4:24 pm ET A year ago Thursday, President Trump raised the average effective tariff rate to 22.5%, and proclaimed April 2 “Liberation Day,” which would “forever be...