At Forbes, Brian Domitrovic explains the dollar’s gyrations damaging impact on the euro.
From Bloomberg, Obama economist Peter Orzag notes that the mortgage crisis destroyed the same amount of wealth as the dot-com bust and wonders why its result was so much more severe. Left out of his analysis is the Great Dollar Appreciation of 2008, which was a separate, economy-killing event from the initial mortgage bust.
At Streit Talk, Steve Hanke diagnoses the Eurozone’s travails, including Greece’s sharp deflationary environment.
On The Kudlow Report, Art Laffer debates the weak economy:
The NY Sunapplauds US Rep. Ron Paul’s recent TV debate with Paul Krugman as Hayek vs. Keynes. From Paper Money Collapse, Austrian economist Detlev Schlichter advises on how to debate Krugman (h/t: TGSN). At Fiscal Times, Liz Peek castigates Krugman for his pro-inflation bullying of Ben Bernanke. On Econlog, David Henderson defends Romney supporter Edward Conrad’s pro-wealth views from Krugman. In The Economist, Will Wilkinson critiques Stephen King’s call for tax increases. From First Trust, Brian Wesbury notes the economy’s slowing but remains optimistic. The NYTreports China’s vanishing current account surplus, but notes continued US pressure to revalue the yuan. On NRO, Kevin Hassett explains the negative impact on growth of policy uncertainty. From The WSJ, Dan Henninger notes the Obama Administration’s attempts to court young voters with handouts rather than growth and jobs:
At Econtalk, John Taylor discusses his new book, First Principles: Five Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity. TGSN recounts the Free Silver Movement’s history.
From Forbes, Brian Domitrovic explains the weak dollar caused the real estate bubble.
In The NY Sun, Ira Stoll notes the problems for savers with zero interest rates.
At RCM, John Tamny suggests there’s nothing wrong with China’s new trade deficit.
On The Kudlow Report, John Rutledge discusses the US’s tough trade stance towards China:
At TGSN, Ralph Benko highlights Jacques Rueff’s analysis of the monetary errors that led to the Great Depression. In The Washington Times, Richard Rahn argues the world economy’s future is bearish. From Alhambra Partners, Joe Calhoun expresses pessimism about the economy. At Hindu Business Line, G. Ramachandran links Robert Mundell’s euro to the Roman Empire. On The WSJ, Paul Gigot discusses Newt Gingrich’s prospects in the southern primary states:
On Econlog, David Henderson disputes Louis Woodhill’s analysis of gold and oil.
In The NYT, Bruce Bartlett advocates higher tax rates to raise more revenues.
From Forbes, John Tamny advocates a consumption tax.
In The NY Sun, Seth Lipsky says the dollar is emerging as a campaign issue.
At The American, James Pethokoukis responds to attacks on his income inequality analysis.
On The Kudlow Report, Pethokoukis discusses Herman Cain’s handling of sexual harassment allegations:
On NRO, Larry Kudlow opposes QE3. At Asia Times, David Goldman argues the investor strike is over. From International Liberty, Dan Mitchell refutes the IMF’s call for higher taxes in El Salvador.
At TGSN, Kelly Hanson recounts Jacques Rueff’s analysis of the dollar’s reserve currency curse. Comedian Tim Slagle uses Halloween to explain taxes (h/t: David Henderson):
In The WSJ, The Business Roundtable’s Jim McNerney argues for pro-business policies. At The NYT, Christina Romer suggests Ben Bernanke adopt an employment target at the Fed.
At RCM, John Tamny rebuts the President’s claims on green energy subsidies.
On Forbes, Charles Kadlec suggests higher tax rates on the wealthy will do little but spread the misery.
From The Weekly Standard, Larry Lindsey argues cash flow problems are stymieing the economy and the Great Depression was improved by FDR’s decision to devalue the dollar.
At RCM, McCain economist Doug Holtz-Eakin advocates tax reform rather than tariffs to better compete with China.
From last week, The WSJpraises House Speaker John Boehner (OH) for refusing to pass China tariff legislation.
On Kudlow, a panel discusses the Republican primary:
In The Washington Times, Richard Rahn explains the futility of punishing banks for responding to regulatory restrictions.
From The Washington Post, Hernand de Soto notes that “over the past 15 years… as they package, bundle and resell securities, Americans and Europeans have gradually undermined the reliability of the records that guarantee or make credit trustworthy.”
On COAL, Paul Krugman expresses concern that some Occupy Wall Streeters have taken up sound money, but helpfully rebuts opposition to fractional reserve banking.
In The WSJ, Art Laffer explains that tax compliance adds an additional 30% to the cost of federal taxes and advocates a flat tax to reduce complexity.
At NRO, Kevin Williamson reports that repealing the Bush tax cuts for higher earners would raise $80 billion per year, in the context of a $1.6 trillion annual deficit.
The Journaleditorializes that raising taxes on the rich will have a modest impact on the budget.
Consider the Internal Revenue Service's income tax statistics for 2008, the latest year for which data are available. The top 1% of taxpayers—those with salaries, dividends and capital gains roughly above about $380,000—paid 38% of taxes. But assume that tax policy confiscated all the taxable income of all the "millionaires and billionaires" Mr. Obama singled out. That yields merely about $938 billion, which is sand on the beach amid the $4 trillion White House budget, a $1.65 trillion deficit, and spending at 25% as a share of the economy, a post-World War II record.
On TNR, Jonathan Chait counters Laffer with the claim that lower tax rates are not necessary to lower compliance costs.
From The WSJ, James Taranto skewers Walter Mondale’s call for higher tax rates.
Cato’s Alan Reynolds discusses tax rates on the Tara Servatius radio show.
At Econlog, David Henderson critiques one aspect of David Cay Johnston’s recent attack on supply-side economics.
But if he wanted to inform the reader without misleading, he would have presented the data on the percent of all federal taxes paid by the top 1 percent. In their book, Public Finance, 9th edition, Harvey S. Rosen and Ted Gayer, give a table showing that in 2005 [and things haven't changed much since then] the top one percent paid 27.6 percent of all federal taxes.
At COAL, Paul Krugman suggests the US can comfortably handle tax rates that absorb 23 percent of GDP, up from the historical 18.3 percent average.
On RCM, Joe Calhoun wonders if commodities have reached their top.
At Asia Times, David Goldman suggests the economy may lapse back to deflation. More on the theme, here.
On Forbes, John Tamny profiles the producer of the forthcoming Atlas Shrugged film.
At New World Economics, Nathan Lewis analyzes government spending.
In i view magazine, Ermira Kamberi examines Robert Mundell’s call for a global currency.
On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough sees the tax agreement as a victory for “Jack Kemp style supply-side economics,” but bemoans the deficit.
At The WSJ, Stephen Moore reports some conservatives may oppose the tax deal over higher estate tax rates.
On RCM, Benn Steil explains how floating currencies create bubbles and break down the global economy.
Consider first how the United States and China would interact under a classical gold standard. If the United States sent a dollar to China, China would have to redeem that dollar for American gold. A fall in the U.S. gold stock would necessitate a rise in U.S. interest rates, which would reduce credit growth, reduce prices, and reduce the trade deficit. This is the mechanism by which the gold standard automatically corrected global imbalances.
Compare this with today's actual monetary structure. When the United States sends a dollar to China, China immediately returns it in the form of a low-interest-rate loan. That dollar is then recycled through the U.S. financial system, causing further credit growth and, critically, no countervailing Federal Reserve action.
The bubbles and imbalances that have marked the past decade-as they did the 1920s-are features of a monetary regime which operates in precisely the opposite fashion as the one which operated during the great globalization of the late nineteenth century. America is not, as Fed chairman Ben Bernanke would have it, a passive victim of "a global savings glut." It should not, therefore, be surprising that bubbles will continue to emerge in one asset market after another, and will continue to burst with damaging consequences.
From Cato, Greg Mills suggests that Africa is poor because its economies are illiberal.
On Bloomberg, Kevin Hassett argues Ireland should be allowed to default.
AEI’s resident floating currency advocate says – surprise! – the euro in its present form is doomed, because it restricts nations from devaluing their currencies and therefore defaulting on their debt.
In The Washington Times, Patrice Hill reports on economists who say the US-China current account deficit costs America jobs.
From earlier this year, on the Freeman, David Henderson explains trade deficits are irrelevant.
