Free Republic

In an article published in 2001, Jude Wanniski, the author of The Way the World Works, noted that since 1896, only Republican presidential candidates running on “pro-growth” platforms have won. Republicans advocating “austerity” have invariably lost. With the defeat of Mitt Romney, the election of 2012 continued this pattern, with one addition. Republican presidential candidates offering clueless confusion also lose. Democracies tend to evolve two political parties, a party of economic growth and a party of income redistribution. If a credible plan for economic growth is offered, the people will vote for it, provided that it does not involve crushing...

WASHINGTON -- Jude Wanniski might have been called the most important journalist of his time, except that the former reporter and editorial writer was never really a journalist. He was an advocate who changed the world. He fathered supply-side economics, which became the doctrine of the Republican Party and enabled it to be the nation's ruling party most of the last half-century. When Wanniski died of a heart attack Monday, he was at the low point of his political influence. The doors of the mighty that opened for him in the '70s and '80s long had been closed. In an...

Jude Wanniski, 1936-2005 By James K. Glassman Published 08/31/2005 E-Mail Bookmark Print Save TCS Jude Wanniski, one of America's great contrarians and polemicists and the man who turned me -- and thousands more -- on to free-market economics, died suddenly Monday afternoon of a heart attack. He was 69. Wanniski was always cheerful, always provocative, always spoke his mind. His writing was innovative, surprising and confident in a manner largely unknown in journalism today. Wanniski, a disciple of the Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, who won a Nobel Prize in 1999, valued history and -- at least until the final...

Economist Jude Wanniski, the man who coined the term "supply-side economics," died of a heart attack earlier today at 67. The former WND columnist was founder and chairman of Polyconomics, Inc., and author of the 1978 book "The Way the World Works," named one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century by the editors of the National Review. At the heart of the book is his 1978 discovery of the cause of the 1929 stock market crash, a discovery that vindicates the classical economics, which had been blamed for the crash and the Great Depression. "Jude will...

An Optimistic Israel Scenario Memo To: Website Fans, Browsers, Clients From: Jude Wanniski Re: My Latest Al Jazeera column After Gaza: Sharon's victory? by Jude Wanniski Sunday 28 August 2005 12:23 PM GMT Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the year so far has been Israel’s fulfillment of its promise to clear the Gaza Strip of the 8,000 Jewish settlers. Those of us who doubted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would carry out his plan to completion are now saying this may be his "finest hour." Still, it is difficult to forget that Sharon was the man most responsible for locating...

This article originally appeared at: http://tooconservative.blogspot.com/2005/08/supply-side-economics-loses-parent-who.html Sad news tonight to report from the world of supply-side economics. Jude Wanniski, the man who coined the term "supply-side" while working for the Wall Street Journal, passed away as the result of a heart attack that he suffered earlier today. I only met the man a few times, but I am close friends with one of his sons who I got to know while working for Steve Forbes. My heart goes out to my friend and I want him to know that he and his family are in my family's thoughts and prayers....

The only reason the Valeria Plame affair remains a big story is the small possibility that when U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and the federal grand jury take action, any day now, it may reach into the Oval Office. That is, one or more indictments of government officials may lead to hard information that President Bush knew the Niger yellowcake story was pure propaganda, which helped him justify war with Iraq, when he used it in his 2003 State of the Union speech for that purpose. Fitzgerald has been keeping his cards close to his vest, but sources close to the...

For all my criticism of the Bush administration over the war in Iraq, I have to praise him mightily for refusing to buckle to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Global Warming. The President is meeting with the G-8 heads of state in Gleneagles, Scotland, where there will presumably more pressure on him to at least take a step toward the fiction that mankind is responsible for the slight climate change that has occurred since the end of the 19th century -- and that we have to shut down the world economy in order to cool it off. I've run...

Memo To: President George W. Bush Cc: Karl Rove From: Jude Wanniski Re: The “Taking Clause” Erased To be honest, Mr. President, until the Supreme Court on Thursday announced its 5-to-4 decision limiting the property rights of all Americans, I assumed that upon the retirement of Chief Justice Rehnquist you would not name Justice Clarence Thomas to fill that vacancy – and that you would probably be wise to avoid the controversy his nomination would bring. But after reading Justice Thomas’s dissenting opinion in the New London, Conn. case, I think his wisdom, his judgment and his perspective so clearly...

I came to believe beyond any reasonable doubt that Nixon did not lie or direct a cover-up, and that if he had gone to trial in the Senate, he would have survived. Why did he then resign? Because he knew a Senate trial would take a year of the nation’s energy at a time when our economy was falling apart underneath him and we were at a point in the Cold War in which the Soviet Union seemed to be winning.

It has been eight months since the Federal Reserve Board surprised the financial markets by announcing it might soon end its accommodative monetary policy to head off an inflation it suspected lurked in the wings. Then, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress it might only take a quarter-point rise in the interest rate charged to banks for overnight reserves (the "federal funds rate") to strike a balance between inflation and economic growth. The rate was then 1 percent, the lowest since 1958. And after four quarter-point increases beginning June 30, it is now 2 percent. Yet serious market commentators say...

Close Where is that gold dinar? by Jude Wanniski Wednesday 24 November 2004 11:01 AM GMT When Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhamad last November retired from his 22 years in power at age 77, I had hoped he would devote his energies to a monetary reform of the Islamic world built around a gold dinar. But after a few speeches and press releases on this subject, he has disappeared, practically dropping out of sight.With the dollar price of gold now soaring and the US dollar sinking against the euro, the whole world could now make good use of Mahathir's idea,...

June 12, 1998 ANTITRUST By Alan Greenspan Memo To: SSU Students on summer break From: Jude Wanniski Re: Guest Lecture The world of antitrust is reminiscent of Alice's Wonderland: everything seemingly is, yet apparently isn't, simultaneously. It is a world in which competition is lauded as the basic axiom and guiding principle, yet "too much" competition is condemned as "cutthroat." It is a world in which actions designed to limit competition are branded as criminal when taken by businessmen, yet praised as "enlightened" when initiated by the government. It is a world in which the law is so vague that...

Memo To: Website Fans, Browsers Clients From: Jude Wanniski Re: Part I Today I’m posting the first of a two-part brief history of the Supply-Side Revolution, written by a distinguished Los Angeles attorney, Wayne Jett, a 60-year-old man I’ve never met. He clearly has gone to a great deal of trouble to assemble this account, which he first sent to Professor Robert Mundell of Columbia University – Mundell being the prime mover in reviving classical theory. When Mundell gave it his seal of approval, Mr. Jett sent it to me, wondering if I could suggest a place where it might...

Get Lucky by Jonathan Chait Post date 12.17.02 | Issue date 12.23.02 One of the things that has fascinated me about The Wall Street Journal editorial page is its occasional capacity to rise above the routine moral callousness of hack conservative punditry and attain a level of exquisite depravity normally reserved for villains in James Bond movies. To wit, a recent lead editorial titled "THE NON-TAXPAYING CLASS." A reader unfamiliar with the Journal's editorial positions might read this headline and assume it refers to ultra-wealthy tax dodgers. But no--the Journal, of course, approves of such behavior. The non-taxpayers it denounces...

<p>When I tuned in Tuesday morning to catch Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before Senate Banking, right off the bat I watched you gurgling about how he was the greatest central banker in the history of civilization!! The reason you chose this moment to smother him with wet kisses on his nether body parts, you said, was because you were leaving the Senate this year and probably would not have the privilege of genuflecting before him again. I turned green and looked around for a bucket.</p>