Why does the President not say “climate change?” Will the House cap-and-trade bill create millions of new jobs in America — jobs that can’t be shipped overseas? Will the nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy lead the 21st century’s global economy? Who really pays for a cap-and-trade bill?
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Tag Archives: economic growth
Will the stimulus come too late?
3 June 2009 
38 Comments
I began this blog at the end of March after the stimulus bill had become law. I had been struck by how much the stimulus debate had focused on whether the bill was efficient. (It clearly was not.) There was much less discussion of whether the stimulus would be effective, and of the timing of […]
Read moreUnderstanding the GM bankruptcy
1 June 2009 51 Comments
Many of you are new to this blog since I wrote extensively about autos six weeks ago. As background, I coordinated the auto loan process for President Bush last fall as the Director of the White House National Economic Council (the position now held by Dr. Lawrence Summers). I wrote a series of posts on […]
Read moreThe Smoot-Krugman carbon import tariff
29 May 2009 34 Comments
I wrote last Friday about the China/India hole in the American climate strategy: America appears to lack a high-probability strategy for how to get China, India, and Russia to agree to self-impose a significant positive carbon price. The Administration and its Congressional allies are trying to impose a significant carbon price in the U.S. through […]
Read moreSlowing health cost growth requires information AND incentives
21 April 2009 6 Comments
When I was growing up, I was taught that you change the oil in your car every 3,000 miles. Suppose I take my three-year old car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change. Jiffy Lube has all the latest information technology, as well as good data on both manufacturers’ recommendations and best practices. After entering […]
Read moreBaseline games
21 April 2009 6 Comments
Suppose I bought an iPhone yesterday for $500. Suppose I argue that I will save $2000 this week, because I intend to refraining from buying an additional iPhone today, nor will I buy one this Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Suppose I plan to buy a new flat screen TV tomorrow for $1500. Can I claim […]
Read more Deficits and debt under the President’s budget
20 April 2009 6 Comments
There has been a lot of debate about whether the President’s budget improves or worsens the future deficit picture. This is a debate mostly about baselines – what do you assume would happen otherwise? Rather than engaging in that debate here, I am going to look at the results of what the President has proposed. […]
Read more America’s long-run fiscal problem is spending growth, not taxes
16 April 2009 18 Comments
Yesterday I wrote about the history of tax increases since World War II, and about the battle over the total level of taxation. Now I want to turn to spending. I am a low-tax guy. I have worked on tax issues for 12 of my 15 years in Washington, helping elected officials lower taxes and […]
Read more A short history of higher taxes
15 April 2009 16 Comments
There is always a lot of rhetoric on Tax Day. Later I will comment on some of today’s rhetoric. In this post I will instead focus on some basic facts that are not earth-shattering, but provide some important historic context for the current tax and spending debate. Let’s start by looking at just the total […]
Read moreWhat happened to FREE markets in London?
3 April 2009 25 Comments
Thanks to Reuters’ MacroScope blog for noticing: Keith Hennessey, a former top economic adviser to President George W. Bush, saw this one coming. He rightly predicted that the Group of 20 would drop a key word from its communique at the conclusion of the London Summit: Free. Here is my original post from Wednesday: A quick […]
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