In a continuing effort to provide words of wisdom from beyond the walls of Zacks, here are a few things that I think people should find interesting. The views expressed in the articles are not always shared by either myself or Zacks, but I do find them thought-provoking.
Laura D’Andrea Tyson, a Professor at UC Berkley and the Chief Economist for President Clinton, argues here that the corporate tax rate needs to be cut, not raised. I think there is a good case for the elimination of the corporate tax rate altogether, but with the offset of once again taxing dividends as ordinary income, and making the long-term capital gains rate subject to a much longer holding period, like 10 years, and taxing any capital gains taken earlier as ordinary income. Tyson suggests possibly moving in that direction, but only partially, among her other suggestions.
Bruce Bartlett, former staff Director for the Joint Economic Committee, and former staffer for both Congressmen Jack Kemp and Ron Paul and a budget staff member in the Reagan Administration, looks at the distributional consequences of the tax policy implied by the Ryan Budget proposal.
Brad DeLong, a Professor at UC Berkley, weighs in on the current state of education in Economics.
Mike Konczal, of the Rortybomb blog and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, argues that politically a government shutdown is inevitable, either now or when the debt ceiling is hit, and we might as well get it over with. He may well be right, but a shutdown — particularly one that lasts more than a few days — would be very damaging to the economy. Then again, going along with the cuts being demanded by the House would also be damaging.
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post looks at the Ryan Plan for controlling the cost of Medicare for the Federal Government relative to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
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