Working Americans sense that taxes and transfers now leave them little better off than those who work less. By Phil Gramm and Robert B. Ekelund Jr. June 24, 2018 1:47 pm ET Frenzied rhetoric about income inequality was a larger theme in Hillary Clinton ’s 2016 presidential campaign than in any previous American...
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WSJ: Trump’s Trade Threats Are Hurting Growth
Tariff tensions promote economic uncertainty, which in turn inhibits business investment. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon May 9, 2018 6:38 pm ET Economic uncertainty and prosperity are sworn enemies—when uncertainty reigns, prosperity fades. Uncertainty undermines prosperity by sapping investor and consumer confidence, choking off private investment, and suppressing consumer spending. The depression...
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WSJ: Trump, Tariffs and the Protectionist Temptation
The trade balance doesn’t matter for U.S. prosperity. But America could benefit from updating and enforcing its trade deals, especially with China. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon March 23, 2018 6:39 pm ET Any objective analysis of America’s economic history discredits the notion that the trade balance has a defined relationship with...
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WSJ:How to Complete the Escape From ObamaCare
Congress eliminated the individual mandate. There’s a way around the other onerous regulations. By Phil Gramm March 15, 2018 6:37 pm ET The tax-reform provision repealing the penalty on those who refuse to participate in ObamaCare has freed millions of Americans to escape a system that exploits them. But while Americans...
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WSJ: How Blockchain Can End Poverty
Two-thirds of the world’s population lacks access to a formal system of property rights. By Phil Gramm and Hernando de Soto Jan. 25, 2018 7:11 pm ET For a long time, Western economists failed to appreciate the relationship between private property rights and economic development. Karl Marx saw private property as the source...
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