Tuesday items: Kadlec on Europe's tax hike failures; Benko on Rueff; Forbes on Ron Paul.

From Forbes, Charles Kadlec notes the failure of Europe’s tax-increase austerity.

At TGSN, Ralph Benko highlights Jacques Rueff’s critique of the post-war gold exchange standard.

On C-SPAN, Steve Forbes supports US Rep. Ron Paul (TX) for Fed Chairman:



At The American, Alex Brill examines tax fairness.

In The Washington Times, Richard Rahn lambasts the Obama Administration’s new foreign reporting requirement for US banks.

From Alhambra Partners, Joe Calhoun investors stay in cash.

On NRO, Larry Kudlow analyzes the weak recovery.

At The WSJ, James Swanson discusses Bill Clinton’s claim that President Obama is ahead of the curve pulling the US out of the financial crisis:



In The WSJ, Stephen Moore reports a congressional debate over highway spending.

From The Washington Post, Ezra Klein notes the return of many GW Bush economists on the Romney campaign.

At The WSJ, Cass Sunstein highlights an executive order to harmonize US and foreign regulation.

On Salon, Michael Lind argues the era of globalization is over.

The coal industry highlights the financial strain of rising energy costs:



In The NYT, Bruce Bartlett argues current tax rates aren’t blocking economic growth.

From Bloomberg, Rich Miller argues higher tax rates won’t discourage the wealthy from working harder.

Wednesday items: The Wash Post reports the President's assault on SSE; Ferrara responds; Pethokoukis on inequality.

The Washington Post reports the President claiming supply-side economics has never worked.

In The American Spectator, Peter Ferrara says the President is pitting the takers against the makers.

At Forbes, Bill Frezza rebuts Robert Reich.

On The Kudlow Report, a panel discusses the Gingrich vs. Romney race:



At The American, Alex Brill explains that the payroll tax holiday is bad policy.

The WSJ notes the tax increase support from Governors Cuomo and Brown.

From The American, Bret Swanson argues the FCC restrictions of the AT&T-Mobile wireless merger will damage jobs and innovation.

The WSJ notes possible changes in the Basel III rules.

On Kudlow, James Pethokoukis discusses income inequality:



At Forbes, Brian Domitrovic chides the press for its coverage of Herman Cain.

Thursday items.

On Forbes, historian and Econoclasts author Brian Domitrovic explains that dollar instability led to Social Security’s creation.

In The WSJ, Charles W. Kadlec suggests that after four decades of evidence, the floating dollar experiment can be ruled a failure.

From 1947 through 1967, the year before the U.S. began to weasel out of its commitment to dollar-gold convertibility, unemployment averaged only 4.7% and never rose above 7%. Real growth averaged 4% a year. Low unemployment and high growth coincided with low inflation. During the 21 years ending in 1967, consumer-price inflation averaged just 1.9% a year. Interest rates, too, were low and stable—the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaged less than 4% and never rose above 6%.

What's happened since 1971, when President Nixon formally broke the link between the dollar and gold? Higher average unemployment, slower growth, greater instability and a decline in the economy's resilience. For the period 1971 through 2009, unemployment averaged 6.2%, a full 1.5 percentage points above the 1947-67 average, and real growth rates averaged less than 3%. We have since experienced the three worst recessions since the end of World War II, with the unemployment rate averaging 8.5% in 1975, 9.7% in 1982, and above 9.5% for the past 14 months. During these 39 years in which the Fed was free to manipulate the value of the dollar, the consumer-price index rose, on average, 4.4% a year. That means that a dollar today buys only about one-sixth of the consumer goods it purchased in 1971.

Interest rates, too, have been high and highly volatile, with the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaging more than 8% and, until 2003, never falling below 6%. High and highly volatile interest rates are symptomatic of the monetary uncertainty that has reduced the economy's ability to recover from external shocks and led directly to one financial crisis after another. During these four decades of discretionary monetary policies, the world suffered no fewer than 10 major financial crises, beginning with the oil crisis of 1973 and culminating in the financial crisis of 2008-09, and now the sovereign debt crisis and potential currency war of 2010. There were no world-wide financial crises of similar magnitude between 1947 and 1971.

Concerning quatitative easing, WSJ columnist David Wessell asks, What Would Milton Do?




On NRO, Larry Kudlow reports the Federal Reserve may be backing off its plans for aggressive easing.

At Forbes, Steve Forbes predicts new technologies will make energy plentiful for decades to come.

Also on Kudlow, Stephen Spruiell and Robert Reich debate how to cut the deficit:




At Bloomberg, Amity Schlaes relates the death tax to the story of Secretariat.

On Forbes, AEI’s Alex Brill and Chad Hill analyze tax policy’s impact on growth.