Research | Page 16

Don’t Bring Back Glass-Steagall

Glass-Steagall’s separation of commercial and investment banking was a solution in search of a problem.

Obscure Law Greases the Deregulation Skids

Since taking office in January, President Trump has cancelled 13 regulations issued by Obama administration agencies thanks to a hitherto rarely used law Congress passed over 20 years ago. Congress and the president could potentially cancel thousands of other rules the same way.

Trump’s Plan Reduces the Tax Burden but Increases the Debt Load

Americans spend $400 billion dollars per year to comply with the tax code. Americans also dedicate 9 billion hours of labor to comply with the current tax code. Beyond costly compliance, the current tax code distorts investment and work decisions in the economy. Something needs to be done to simplify the tax code and make it pro-growth.

Debt in the U.S. Fuel for Growth or Ticking Time Bomb?

When people refer to the national debt, they almost always mean the debt owed by our government. But there are actually two important types of debt in the American economy: government debt, and private debt owed by households and businesses.

A Border-Adjustment Tax Will Not Help the Economy Grow

House Speaker Paul Ryan recently proposed a tax plan called A Better Way: A Vision for a Confident America. Ryan’s plan to make the United States more competitive includes a tax cut for businesses, a switch to a territorial tax system, and a border-adjustment tax. A tax cut and a switch to a territorial system would be positive for the economy. On the other hand, the border-adjustment tax would work like a tariff. It would encourage inefficient domestic production, which would raise prices and reduce real output. Over the long run the BAT would not even reduce the trade deficit.

Government Fuel-Economy Standards: A Big Mistake

“Nothing is so permanent,” said Milton Friedman, “as a temporary government program.”

Deposit Insurance Is Not Fair

Many economists have argued that government mortgage programs and low interest rates policies caused the 2008 financial crisis. We maintain that government deposits insurance, provided in the United States by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (or FDIC), may have also been a contributing factor. By failing to price risk fairly, the FDIC encourages banks to increase their risk-taking activities.

Bitcoin and the Disintermediation of the State

Bitcoin, the world’s first form of digital cash, is a nascent invention that has overturned centuries of commonly-held assumptions about monetary policy and the role of government in the provision of money. Whereas universities have long taught that money can only be provided by a government that guarantees it and demands its use in taxation, Bitcoin has thrived for eight years without any government backing it, tantalizingly offering a glimpse of a future separation between state and money, starving government of the fuel that powers its totalitarian impulses and warlike tendencies.

Decision Time for Bitcoin?

In my last article and blog on Bitcoin, I discussed some issues that Bitcoin faced from consolidation and the increasing professionalization of Bitcoin “mining.” These issues may soon be coming to a head in an argument about Bitcoin’s underlying code that offers two divergent paths for the future of Bitcoin – or a third way in which it splits into two separate assets. This possibility is both a serious concern for Bitcoin users and investors.

Dodd-Frank Only Makes Things Worse

The ways of the regulatory state go like this: when a crisis erupts, don’t ask how earlier government interventions may have made the crisis possible or worse than it would have been. Rather, denounce private greed, declare good intentions, pile new regulations atop old, and hope for the best.

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