Now the question remains: will his new staff be "Fair Tax" heavy or "Flat Tax" heavy?
Unfortunately, the economy is deceptively poor through no fault of the president. W will be fortunate not to end up his second four years as Hoover II. Why would foreign investors want to hold US bonds in a rising interest rate market in concert with the dollar in a death spiral?
Former Senator Phil Gramn (who is mentioned in the article). He has a PhD in economics, is a former professor, and used to humiliate democrats on the senate floor during debates, no one is going to be able to knock him.
There's also Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes, Martin Feldstein, Bruce Bartlet, Kudlow, Pat Toomey, you could also go old school, and have Milton Friendman, and Robert Mundell, and a pick of former supple side economists who have noble prizes and of course Arthur Laffer (another winner).
If Bush could utilize all the intelectual conservative talent out there for his Economic Team, it could and would surpass his national security team, and make it extremely hard for anyone in the democratic party to obstruct not to mention easily gain traction and support across the country.
Good. Snow was a bad pick for Treasury Secretary. In his prior job as president of CSX he failed to achieve any relative movement in his company's position as the worst performing of the major railroads(both financially and operationally), nor change its well-deserved reputation for inadequate track maintenance and other safety issues. Screwed the shareholders and took a $10 million golden parachute when he left for Treasury.
Heard a rumor that Phil Gramm may get the Treasury Sec's job, which would be a vast improvement.
What this administration needs more than anything is an economic visionary. It isn't enough to have skill and rattle off dry facts. The American people will be asleep before the first sentence has concluded.
You need someone that can relate economics in a manner that is relevant to daily life. It has to be optimistic, interesting, and it wouldn't hurt to tie it into a deeper theme. "Ownership Society" is a good start at packaging.
I'd expand on this theme by invoking the basic concept of freedom. Explain how the system we now have enters us into a deceptive type of indentured service with the government, in the end even retirement doesn't buy release. Tie in history and how something as basic as taxation without representation stirred this country to a revolution. Our educational system being what it is, they Might know about the event but I'd wager they lack understanding of how this unbearably infringed on individual liberties.
The Bush Administration desperately needs someone that can passionately draw people to an understanding of not only the necessity of these reforms, but that the enactment of these policies will remove a burden they aren't even conscious of since it's been on their shoulders since birth.
For me, the idea of reforming S.S. and perhaps removal of the current tax system is almost as breathtaking a step for liberty and freedom as our actions in the middle east. They just need someone that can convey this to the American people.
I was just googling around and here is how to calculate your taxes from Gramm's 1996 flat tax proposal.
http://cgi.usatoday.com/elect/ep/epr/eprg011.htm
For Mankiw's slot, the White House has courted Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor James Poterba, an expert on Social Security and taxes.
JAMES POTERBA
James Poterba is the Mitsui Professor of Economics and the Associate Head of the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1982. He is also the Director of the Public Economics Research Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. He has served as a Director of the American Finance Association, and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association. |
We need 18% interest rates now, not 3-4 years from now after hyperinflation will have destabilized our system.
BUMP
HERMAN CAIN
I wonder if they all will be hispanic.