America's Lesson for the NHS

Both America and Britain are going to have to change the way they provide health care--but through evolution, not sudden or drastic reform.

Moving toward a Unified Credit for Low-Income Workers

The maze of tax credits that are typically available to low-income individuals under the tax code needs simplifying.

Moving Towards a Unified Credit for Low Income Workers

Replacing all of the seven different tax credits allowed under the current tax code with a simple policy holds significant promise.

A Good Thing Obama Could Do

The Pickens Plan to convert the nation's truck fleet to natural gas contains a clear justification for government involvement--standard setting that the private market cannot do by itself.

Geithner Lays an Egg

Lack of a plan is only one of the problems with President Obama's economic strategy.

How About a Payroll Tax Stimulus?

For a similar amount of money to the $800 stimulus package billion being discussed, we could give every worker $1,500.

Not All Stimuli Are Created Equal

The best stimulus plan is a cut in the payroll tax.

Building a Better Bailout

Business ethics can help get the economy back on track.

Delegating to the Center

Barack Obama faces the most difficult job transition anyone will ever face: moving from campaigning to governing as president of the United States.

Leaders without Followers

The government-bailout plan will receive little support until the public finds the benefits in it for them.

The Conservative Case for Unlimited Deposit Insurance

The FDIC provides a function that conservatives should embrace.

High Anxiety

Are we headed for a depression?

Why We're Floundering

Last Thursday night Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that a consensus had emerged that drastic action was needed to save our financial system--what happened?

America's Economy Will Recover Faster Than Britain

If we are headed for a depression, it will not be like the memories or pictures from history books we have of the 1930s.

Loosen Deposit Insurance Rules to Prevent a Bank Run

Accounting standards need to be rethought.

The Public, the Press, and Palin

The poll numbers show a modestly positive initial response to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

It Isn't a Zero-Sum Game

A Newsweek business roundtable looks at the two faces of globalization and whether the United States can stay ahead.

Hank Paulson's Fannie Gamble

The world would dump the currency of any other country that announced an open-ended bank bailout.

The Fannie and Freddie Follies

The government's backing of Freddie Macand Fannie Maeputs them in a box.

Obama Turns FDR Upside Down

Senator Obama's plans for Social Security could turn the program froma contributory pension scheme into just another welfare program.

Obama Turns FDR Upside Down

As president, Senator Barack Obama would make Social Security a welfare program.

It's Only Going to Get Worse

Everything you always wanted to know about the housing crash, but were afraid to ask.

It's Only Going to Get Worse

With the housing market slump far from over, a dose of modesty would aid policymakers in this situation.

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Both John McCain and Barack Obama need to lay the groundwork for governing during their campaigns.

The KISS Rule for Markets

Financial regulators need to remember KISS--Keep It Simple, Stupid--in order to resolve the current financial crisis.

Hillary's Last Hope

The contest for the Democratic presidential nomination is a game of numbers that will rely on the results of Florida and Michigan's primaries, if they decide to count the votes.

Fixing the Mortgage Market

The collapse of the home mortgage market and its effect on real estate values and the overall economy is one of the most important problems facing the United States.

Card Check Caveat

Hillary Clinton may have lost a few votes in Nevada because of union intimidation, but the Clintons should keep in mind that workers have a lot more to lose from a bill she is supporting.

The State of the Stimulus Debate

We need an economic stimulus focused on the long run, not Keynesian short-term political spending.

What We Want in a President

Presidential candidates' character traits are more important than the issue papers or debate sound bites that get so much attention in the primaries.

What We Want in a President

Presidential candidates' character traits are more important than the issue papers or debate sound bites that get so much attention in the primaries.

Mortgage Madness

SenatorSchumer wants to loose the trial lawyers and the regulators on the mortgage market. That's the surest way to turn our housing weakness to bust.

Fear and Greed

Abrogating Workers’ Rights

The shortcomings of the Employee Free Choice Act; is Congress eliminating workers' right to vote?

Compromised

Tax policies punishing entrepreneurship may be dangerous.

A Program That Works

There are three parts to solving our immigration problems: security, economic participation, and civic integration.

Every Reason to Be Proud

It has been five years since the first of the Bush tax cuts, so it is a natural time to look back and evaluate their economic and budgetary effectiveness.

Can Immigration Reform Work?

If Washington fails to provide a comprehensive system that actually engenders respect for the rules, the rule of law will be damaged to such an extent that it may not recover.

Yuan Compromise?

By resisting revaluation, Mr. Hu is making China poorer in order to maintain the principle of communist control of the economy and so understands that leaders often must act on principle.

Not for Sale to Foreigners

How does the rest of the world view the dissolution of the Dubai Ports deal?

Milton and Rose Friedman

Todaythe revolutionary public policy ideas of Milton and Rose Friedman in 1980are in the mainstream of the conservative agenda, and many on the Left have taken ownership of them.

Milton and Rose Friedman--Liberty's Couple

In 1980, the ideas the Friedmans advocated were considered radical. Today they are in the mainstream of the conservative agenda and many on the left have taken ownership of them.

Confronting China's Bureaucracy on Its Own Terms

The Chinese government's recent decision to change its currency regime left markets and government officials scratching their heads.

Assuring U.S. Competitiveness

One vital position waiting to be filled is assistant attorney general for antitrust--a position exceedingly important for the economic competitiveness of a variety of American industries.

Private Pensions Need Fixing Too

The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation offers at least as great a short-term challenge as Social Security. Both are in urgent need of fixing. Delay only makes matters worse.

Saving Private Accounts

Given the critical importance of saving to our nation's economic future, it is important to make the most of theopportunity to promote national saving offered by Social Security reform.

Life after Greenspan

Whoever is chosen to succeed Alan Greenspan will inherit an independent Federal Reserve thanks to Greenspan's navigation of turbulent economic waters over the last two decades.

An Acid Test of Monti's Motives

Antitrust policy is one area in which European motives are becoming increasingly hard to defend, even for committed Atlanticists.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

President George W. Bush's bold convention promise to propose fundamental tax reform in his second term creates a real opportunity to modernize a tax code that is a half-century old.

Bush the Better Economic Steward

This year's economy and the strong 1996 economy that President Bill Clinton ran on in seeking a second term show remarkable similarities.

Bubble Act Redux

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is about to change the way employee stock options are treated for accounting purposes.

Losing on a Sure Thing

We need more experience and real data on loan performance before any expansion of the direct lending system is even considered.

Kerry Is Not Bush--and It Shows

The positioning challenge for the Kerry campaign is not horizontal--moving left, right or centre. It is vertical. Its current policy positions lack depth.

How to Sink the Tech Comeback

It is ironic that, after all the high-technology equity market has been through, one of the greater threats to its overall valuation is not technological or even competitive, it is public policy.

The Value of Loyalty

Former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill's bitterness isunderstandable, but his reported views regarding the conduct of economic policy do not comport with the public record.

U.S.-Japan Relations in the Next Administration

Whatarethe challenges to be faced by the next administration in U.S.-Japan relations?

Let's See Your Tax Plan, Mr. Gore

AlGore has said that he wants to make sure that only the "right people" get a tax cut.

Would Al Gore's Social Security Reform Be Good for Taxpayers?

The root of good government is stewardship: the wise and prudent handling of the money entrusted to the state by the people who earned it in order to finance necessary public projects.

Clinton's Last Stand Puts Fed under Pressure

Bill Clinton may be a lame duck, but he is a lame duck in search of a legacy.

Gore's Risky Social Security Scheme

Al Gore's plan would do nothing to help save or strengthen the Social Security system.

Even Prosperity Requires a Little Prudence

America must undertake sensible reforms to increase the likelihood that its next twenty years will be as prosperous as the last twenty.

Public Policy Bears on the Markets

The influence of economic policy on stock prices is evident in both the recent correction in the high technology sector and the broader bull market that started in the early 1980s.

The McCain Tax Plan

Three AEI economists debate the merits of Senator JohnMcCain's (Ariz.)tax reform proposals.

The Seventeen-Year Boom

The seventeen-year boom was triggered by a series of policy decisions that let markets do their work of tying risk to reward throughout the economy.

Alan Greenspan

The Federal Reserve Board and its chairman are being criticized for wanting to rein in the current economic expansion--when the Fed’s implicit forecast for the U.S. economy is rosy.

Higher Rates Are Needed to Cool America's Boom

The markets believe that last week's rise in interest rates will probably be the last this year but three pieces of evidence suggest otherwise.

Japan

The recent boomin the Japanese stock market has set off much speculation about an imminent Japanese economic recovery and much interest among U.S. investors.

What to Do with $1 Trillion More in Taxes

The real surplus, which excludes receipts for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, should be returned to the taxpayers.

Reappoint Greenspan Now

The duration of the current economic expansionand the prospect thatAlan Greenspanmight depart from the Fedare creating uncertainty about the future course of monetary policy.

Clinton's Cynical War on Banking Reform

Regulators should insist that CRA-type payments made by bank management go for services rendered and are not de facto political contributions or extortion payments.

Clinton’s Cynical War on Banking Reform

The White House is using the community-development industry as a pawn in a power struggle with the Federal Reserve.

Arranged Marriage

After the briefest of honeymoons, the euro soon began sinking against the U.S. dollar in world currency markets.

Federal Tax Policy in the New Millennium

Statement Before the Budget Committee, by Lawrence B. Lindsey on January 20, 1999.

Time to Cut Taxes

A simple look at the budget math shows that taxes are taking an unprecedented share of income growth.

The Best Insurance against Global Recession

With the U.S. economy slowing at a time when its continued strength is critical for avoiding a world recession, the most appropriate stimuluswould be a 10 percent cut in income taxes.

Control Freaks

To avoid a global depression, the first priority should be to keep the U.S. economy growing—which means keeping it out of the hands of politicians.

Global Risk

Avoiding a global depression and restoring faith in free markets will require U.S. leadership, which is nowhere in evidence at the moment.

Clinton's Japan Policy

It's a sad comment on Bill Clinton administration policy toward Asia that everyone interprets its intervention to prop up the yen as appeasing adversaries and bribing allies.

Clinton to Japan

The Clinton administration's lectures on how the Japanese should behave in their fiscal affairs contrasts with the same administration's rhetoric and behavior in its own fiscal conduct.

Congress and the International Monetary Fund

The appropriate role of Congress in affecting the policies of the International Monetary Fund.

This Banking Deregulation Plan Is Dangerous

The Asian Crisis and the IMF

The sooner we make clear that we are not interested in bailing out crony capitalists and the banks which lend to them, the less likely it is that we will ever face an economic crisis like the present one again.

The Benefits of Bankruptcy

The best approach to the Asian financial crisis is to let failed enterprises confront bankruptcy and get a fresh start with new owners and managers.

Will We Ever Get Tax Reform?

Depending on the will of the voters, a broad based flat rate income tax with a rate in the low 20s, and a generous exemption amount, may well be on the table after the next Presidential election.

That's Gratitude for You

Only one type of tax produced more than the expected amount of revenue this year, and that is the personal income tax.

Fiscal Policy Discovers Irrational Exuberance

Surge in federal tax revenues that made the balanced budget agreement possible was generated primarily by the high-flying stock market and an increase in very high incomes.

Unwilling to Inherit the Wind

What America Can Teach the World--and Itself

The American example should be instructive to other nations but should also inspire Americans to undertake the largely unfinished work of opening the public sector to market forces.

Economy Watch

A Briefing on the Economic State of the Union

The Future of American Taxation

The Tax Policy Outlook

How Would President Bush's Tax Plan Affect the Economy?

Japan Policy Challenges for the New Administration

A Briefing on the State of the Union

Tax Policies of the Presidential Candidates

Congress and the International Monetary Fund

The appropriate role of Congress in affecting the policies of the International Monetary Fund.

The Asian Crisis and the IMF

The sooner we make clear that we are not interested in bailing out crony capitalists and the banks which lend to them, the less likely it is that we will ever face an economic crisis like the present one again.