Weekend edition: Lewis on current account deficits; IBD on the dollar and oil; Brannon on capital gains taxes.

From Forbes, Nathan Lewis suggests huge, permanent current account deficits are no problem.

IBD links the dollar’s foreign exchange value and the oil price.

At Forbes, Ike Brannon argues low taxes on capital gains and dividends are essential to productivity and wage growth.

On CNBC, former US Sen. Jim Talent (MO) discusses Mitt Romney’s ties to US Rep. Paul Ryan’s (WI) budget plan:



In The WSJ, Phil Gramm and Steve McMillin note the US has the most progressive tax system in the world.

At TGSN, Ralph Benko reports new data that suggests Milton Friedman drastically overestimated the gold standard’s cost.

From The Gatestone Institute, David Goldman links oil prices to the S&P.

At The American, James Pethokoukis highlights the weaken-than-expected March employment figures.

In Forbes, Peter Ferrara predicts the Supreme Court will strike down Obamacare.

The WSJ quotes the great Henry Hazlitt on the dangers of even a mild inflation.

In The WSJ, Ronald Coase and Nina Wang explain China’s success is due to liberalization not state control.

On Forbes, Tim Worstall notes rumors of a currency union between Australia and New Zealand.

In The WSJ, Antonis Samaras reports the dire effect on Greece of contraction plus austerity.

In Forbes, Steve Forbes highlights the Chinese highway partnership between public and private sectors.

At Bloomberg, Forbes critiques the US Federal Reserve:



In The NYT, Paul Krugman derides inflation hawks:

For at least three years, right-wing economists, pundits and politicians have been warning that runaway inflation is just around the corner, and they keep being wrong. Do you remember the tirades about “debasing the dollar” around this time last year? Do you remember the scorn heaped on Mr. Bernanke last spring when he argued that the bulge in inflation taking place at the time was just a temporary blip caused by gasoline prices and would soon recede? Well, he was right. At this point, inflation is once again running a bit below the Fed’s self-declared target of 2 percent.

At Fiscal Times, Bruce Bartlett suggests earmarks are less important than some conservatives suggest.

Tuesday update: Malpass and Moore on capital outflow; Domitrovic on unproductive investment; Benko on gold enthusiasm on the campaign trail.

From The WSJ, David Malpass and Stephen Moore note the outflow of investment capital from the US.

On Forbes, Brian Domitrovic explains that the weak dollar has shunted trillions of dollars out of productive investment into unproductive assets such as commodities.

At Forbes, Ralph Benko reports on gold standard enthusiasm on the campaign trail.

On The Kudlow Report, John Rutledge discusses the stock market and the economy:




At International Liberty, Cato’s Dan Mitchell provides three simple rules for tax reform.

The WSJ applauds the Greek government’s leading supply sider.

Mr. Samaras is calling for a cut in the Greek corporate income tax to 15% from 24%, along with cuts in the personal income-tax rate and taxes on fuel and tourism. In yesterday's interview he argues that lower rates would ease Greece's rampant tax-evasion problem while unleashing the creativity of the private sector. Sounds about right to us. As long as Mr. Samaras is looking for unorthodox ideas, we'd commend to his attention economist Steve Hanke's proposal, outlined on these pages last year, to sharply cut payroll taxes on employers to reduce labor costs and spur job creation. Greece's labor costs have soared over the past decade under union pressure, and those uncompetitive wages are a big part of Greece's sluggish economy.

From Forbes, Lawrence Hunter links the increase in social welfare spending with the decline in net private investment.

On RCM, John Tamny reviews Tim Harford’s Adapt.

At NRO, Mario Loyola notes the folly of soaking the rich.

Also on Kudlow, Stephen Moore and Sen. Rob Portman (OH) discuss the debt and taxes:



TGSN features videos of Lew Lehrman discussing the gold standard.

In The NYT, Bruce Bartlett reveals that Margaret Thatcher’s conservative revolution merely slowed the growth of Britain’s government.

From Bloomberg, Keynesian Brad DeLong argues the US is in a liquidity trap and requires big government spending stimulus to get out.