Tax cuts and deregulation spurred the boom. Tariffs delivered neither economic growth nor key states. By Phil Gramm and Pat Toomey March 2, 2021 1:26 pm ET Donald Trump was America’s first post-Depression presidential nominee to make protectionism a major plank of his platform. During the 2016 campaign he presented it, along with...
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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...
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WSJ: Welcome to the Era of Nonstop Stimulus
Spending didn’t speed the last recovery, but Biden’s team is keen to keep the money flowing endlessly. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Jan. 3, 2021 1:18 pm ET When President Obama’s last Treasury secretary, Jack Lew, made the extraordinary claim that the Obama economic recovery failed because Washington “stopped [spending] too soon...
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WSJ: In Defense of Scrooge, Whose Thrift Blessed the World
In the 1840s, Dickens didn’tsee how businessmen like his hero were already lifting mankind from poverty. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Dec. 23, 2020 5:36 pm ET No Christmas story except the biblical account of Jesus’ birth has been more often retold or more cherished than Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” published...
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WSJ: Clinton’s Example for Biden
Like the 1994 election, voters have chosen divided government—and issued a mandate for compromise. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Nov. 17, 2020 1:06 pm ET Republicans and Democrats campaigned on very different platforms this year, and the American people seem to have had their own agenda. By electing a divided government, Americans...
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