Should U.S. Fiscal Policy Address Slow Growth or the Debt? A Nondilemma
The United States has a simple path to a brighter economic future: slash expenditures and keep tax rates low.
The United States faces two economic challenges: slow growth and an ever-increasing ratio of debt to GDP. Many policymakers believe they face a dilemma because the policy solutions to the two problems are opposite – lower taxes and/or Keynesian stimulus spending to spur growth only exacerbates the long-run fiscal imbalance. But in a new paper, Cato scholar Jeffrey A. Miron says that policymakers are wrong to see this as a dilemma. Argues Miron, “The United States has a simple path to a brighter economic future: slash expenditures and keep tax rates low.”
The House on Tuesday night passed the Senate’s bill to avert the fiscal cliff. The deal raises tax rates on entrepreneurs, investors, small business owners, and other “rich” taxpayers, and postpones the sequester budget cuts. Cato scholar Daniel J. Mitchell comments, “This deal is not good for the economy. It doesn’t do anything to cap the burden of government spending. It doesn’t reform entitlement programs. …This is sort of like a late Christmas present, but we must have been naughty all year long and taxpayers are getting lumps of coal.”
In the latest issue of Regulation, Thomas A. Lambert summarizes the reasoning underlying the Roberts individual mandate ruling, and explains how it actually undermines the new health care law. Also in this issue, G. Stuart Mendenhall and Mark Schmidhofer question the usefulness of the TSA’s terrorist screening procedures.
The top federal capital gains tax rate is increasing this year. A new bulletin from Cato scholar Chris Edwards describes why policymakers should keep capital gains taxes low. If the U.S. capital gains tax rate rises next year as scheduled, these higher rates will harm investment, entrepreneurship, and growth, and will raise little, if any, added federal revenue.
January 3, 2013
January 3, 2013
January 3, 2013
January 9
Featuring Craig Whitney, Author, Living with Guns, Former New York Times reporter and editor; Alan Gura, Gura & Possessky, PLLC, Lead counsel in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago; and Alan Morrison, Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School; moderated by Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute.
12:00pm AuditoriumJanuary 16
Featuring the author Brian Tamanaha, William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law and Israel Treiman Faculty Fellow, Washington University Law School; with comments by Neal McCluskey, Associate Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute; and Paul Campos, Professor of Law, University of Colorado at Boulder and Author, Don’t Go To Law School (Unless); moderated by Walter Olson, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute and Author, Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America.
12:00pm AuditoriumJanuary 17
Featuring the authors Wayne Leighton, Professor of Economics, Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala; and Edward Lopez, Associate Professor of Law and Economics, San Jose State University; with comments by Fred Smith, Founder and Chairman, Competitive Enterprise Institute; moderated by Ian Vásquez, Director, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute.
12:00pm AuditoriumThe Cato Institute is giving away free Amazon Kindles this winter, with a new winner chosen once a month in December, January, and February. All you need to do to get your shot at winning this bestselling e-reader is provide your email address.
To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.
Did Wall Street cause the mess we are in? Should Washington place stronger regulations on the entire financial industry? Can we lower unemployment rates by controlling the free market? The answer is NO.
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On to the Next Manufactured Fiscal Crisis
The political reality is that the country is likely to continue bouncing from sensationalized fiscal crisis to sensationalized fiscal crisis.
Costs and Benefits of 2013’s Foreign Policy Initiatives
Responsible policymakers should carefully weigh the costs and benefits of foreign policy initiatives, particularly those that are likely to impose an onerous burden on our troops.
The Trade Agenda in 2013
The Spending Cliff
Republicans focused on taxes, and lost on spending, too.
Obama Gets His Class-Warfare Trophy, But the Fiscal Cliff Is Just One Battle in a Long War
Will Republicans now take a stronger stand against wasteful and inappropriate spending?
It’s the Spending Cliff, Stupid
A CEO’s Advice to Congress
How can government policy contribute to the kind of environment in which human productivity is maximized and in which individuals can pursue their personal happiness?