Wednesday summary: Laffer and Ponnuru on Cain's tax plan; Lauder and The NY Sun stress the benefits of immigration; Huntsman on TBTF.

In The WSJ, Art Laffer supports Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan.

At Bloomberg, National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru critiques Cain’s plan.

The NY Sun chides the GOP candidates for sounding hostile to immigration.

In The WSJ, Leonard Lauder argues that immigration is pro-growth, noting that more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

On The Kudlow Report, a panel discusses last night’s GOP debate:

 

In The WSJ, Jon Huntsman opposes too-big-to-fail banks.

IBD rebuts the inequality myth.

At Forbes, Bill Frezza laments the state of macroeconomics.

From RCM, Brian Wesbury sees positive Q3 growth.

On Kudlow, Sen. Pat Toomey (PA) discusses proposals for real growth:

 

In The NYT, Bruce Bartlett analyzes prospects of tax reform.

At COAL, Paul Krugman highlights The Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the 9-9-9 plan.

Weekend edition: Danker links the debt downgrade to fiat money; Pawlenty withdraws; Ferrara sees a crash coming.

From The Des Moines Register, Rich Danker suggests the S&P debt downgrade is the inevitable result of leaving the gold standard 40 years ago.

The LA Times reports growth advocate Tim Pawlenty’s withdrawal from the Republican presidential race.

At NRO, Larry Kudlow interviews Sen. Pat Toomey (PA) about a grand bargain on the debt and taxes.

On The Kudlow Report, James Pethokoukis analyzes the GOP debate:




At RCP, US Rep. Ron Paul (TX) advocates a gold standard at last week’s GOP debate.

On The Washington Monthly, Steve Benen expresses astonishment that the gold standard is being discussed by Republican candidates.

From Forbes, Peter Ferrara predicts the end of loose monetary policy, combined with new Obamacare taxes and the Bush tax rates’ expiration, will cause an economic collapse in 2013.

On Fox Business News, Steve Forbes suggests bond yields will rise due to higher borrowing and the low dollar:




In The WSJ, Glenn Hubbard advocates tax reform to get the economy moving.

On The American Spectator, John Berlau chides Europe for suspending short sales.

At New World Economics, Nathan Lewis ties tax and monetary error to the rise and fall of great nations.

On CNN, Paul Krugman wishes for an alien invasion that would justify increased government spending and expansionary monetary policy.




The Washington Post reports that after months of deficit obsession, the House Republican majority looks vulnerable.

At Forbes, Reuven Brenner suggests educational reform to get the US growing again.

Reason asks various experts how to fix the economy. Only Amity Schlaes zeroes in on monetary reform as the top priority. Notably, former supply-sider Bruce Bartlett argues the US is in a Keynesian liquidity trap requiring inflation and increased government spending.

Weekend edition: Mundell on a stronger dollar; Lewis, Jenkins, Forbes on the euro; Toomey on fast growth.

From Korea’s JoongAng Daily, Robert Mundell expresses concern about a stronger dollar and calls for a stable euro/dollar exchange rate.

On Forbes, Nathan Lewis argues the Eurozone’s economic problems shouldn’t undermine the euro.

In The WSJ, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. suggests the euro is working as it should:

Those who say if only Greece still had its own currency, so much pain would have been avoidable, exaggerate. Under no possible currency regime would Greece have been able to go on forever borrowing money from foreigners to live beyond its means or its willingness to work. The same is true to lesser degree of other troubled European economies, including Portugal and Spain.

All along, the challenge of the euro was the challenge that undid the gold standard—to make "the law of one price" prevail across multiple countries in the age of interest group democracy. "One price" in one country works—Americans will pick up and move 3,000 miles for a job, but even in America, not without pain.

Yet the nostalgia for a Europe of independent currencies is mostly nostalgia for an illusory shortcut—even more so as services, rather than tradable goods, become the overwhelming source of employment in modern economies. Greece, with its sun and history, has every potential to make a happy, privileged existence inside the euro zone. Today's growth gap between Europe's north and south, which some say proves the unwisdom of a common monetary policy, is hardly organic—it's the product of their common mistake in loading too much debt on unreformed southern economies in giddy expectation of euro-based prosperity.

At RCM, Joe Calhoun says Paul Krugman is right that defaulting on debt can be healthy.

On Yahoo Finance, Steve Forbes addresses Greece’s debt problems:



The WSJ editorial board argues the dollar’s decline has been good for wealthier, heavily invested Americans but terrible for blue collar workers and the middle class.

The WSJ reports Sen. Richard Shelby (AL) will urge Fed Chairman Bernanke to adopt and explicit inflation target.

From IBTimes (UK), Gabriel Mueller compares the dollar and gold price of the 1970s to the present (h/t: Ralph Benko).

At RCP, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (PA) supports Tim Pawlenty’s economic growth proposal.

RCP: Tim Pawlenty has come out with what many consider to be a very pro-growth economic plan. Would you support Pawlenty's plan?

Toomey: I haven't had a chance to break down and study every element of his plan, but I am very enthusiastic about the fact that he has made economic growth -- encouraging that growth through tax reform, lowering the top marginal rates, and the abolition of the tax on capital gains -- that he has made it the centerpiece of his campaign is very constructive and very good news. A very important part of our message needs to be our ability to restore economic growth and job creation. Now, [Pawlenty] has established a very ambitious goal of 5 percent economic growth.

RCP: Do you think that's a reasonable goal?

Toomey: If we had really dramatic tax reform, if we got our fiscal house in order, if we reform the big entitlement programs, if we rein in the regulators, and if we expand trade, I think it is entirely possible. You could average that. We could have a wave of innovation and investment that could very well produce something like that and it's a good goal to have.

From The WSJ, Stephen Moore analyzes the weak recovery.

On Bloomberg, Caroline Baum suggests unstable tax policy is damaging the economy.

At Slate, Annie Lowrey acknowledges that some tax cuts do pay for themselves.

On The Kudlow Report, Stephen Moore and James Pethokoukis debate the economy and debt:




In The American Spectator, G. Tracy Mehan, III, wonders why we would raise taxes now.

At Forbes, Peter Ferrara recommends health care reforms that would achieve much of Obamacare’s aims without job-killing mandates.

On TNR, Jonathan Chait cites Bruce Bartlett arguing Republican claims about tax hikes’ negative impact is overstated.

At American Thinker, Henry Oliner defends supply-side economics.

Weekend items.

At New World Economics, Nathan Lewis examines money supply under a gold standard.

On IBD, Alan Reynolds challenges Peter Schiff’s claim that falling real estate prices threaten the economy.

At Fox News, The Journal Editorial Report names U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) as a winner for 2010, and John Maynard Keynes as a loser:




In The NYT, Harvard’s Greg Mankiw sounds supply-side themes in advising the President on how to understand conservative thinking.

At the liberal Firedoglake, Jest names Jude Wanniski and Art Laffer the worst economists in the world.

On Fox News, Steve Forbes predicts 2011 will bring a dollar crisis:




At Red State, Soleynm suggests President Obama is moving towards supply-side economics.

On Fiscal Times, Bruce Bartlett makes the case for federal budget reform.