Tuesday round up: Reynolds on high tax rates; Bhide defends the euro; Domitrovic on GM.

From The WSJ, Alan Reynolds demolishes arguments for 70% tax rates on the rich (full text from Cato).

In The WSJ, Amar Bhide provides an excellent defense of the euro:

But here's the catch. Devaluation works its magic to the extent it doesn't trigger demands for wage hikes, even though a depreciating currency increases the price of imports and reduces the purchasing power of workers' incomes.

Now, individual employees might be susceptible to a money illusion and worry only about their nominal wages. But it isn't the demands of individual workers that make labor markets excessively rigid—it's unions and other such institutionalized players. Unions that won't negotiate pay cuts with employers are unlikely to allow devaluations to erode real wages through the back door. Indeed union contracts often contain protections against inflation....

Worse, devaluations clip the real incomes of those least able to afford the loss—the elderly who depend on their meager savings and pensions, low-wage employees who aren't unionized and lack valuable skills, and small businesses scraping along that don't get even a temporary boost to profit margins because they ply a purely local trade.

At Forbes, Brian Domitrovic explains the folly of investing in GM.

In Human Events, John Hayward suggests a shift in the Left’s view of the Laffer Curve.

On The Kudlow Report, US Rep. Ron Paul (TX) discusses the dollar and the economy:



At International Liberty, Dan Mitchell argues European austerity hasn’t been as severe as Paul Krugman suggests.

The NY Sun rebuts Berkshire Hathaway’s Charles Munger on gold.

In The Washington Times, Richard Rahn argues spending in Europe still increased during the recent debt crisis.

From Alhambra Partners, Joe Calhoun sees some positive trends in the economy.

On Fox Business News, Stephen Moore discusses state tax rates:



In The American Interest, Barry Eichengreen foresees declining use of the dollar in world commerce.

From The WSJ, Justin Lahart suggests unemployment would be down to 7.1% without government spending cuts.

At The NYT, Bruce Bartlett doubts rich people will relocate from the US if taxes go up.