For decades, America has suffered from a long-run productivity slowdown that has sapped the economy of its former dynamism, and left median wages stagnant. Will the tax legislation recently enacted by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration finally reverse this trend, or will it make a bad situation worse?
PHILADELPHIA – We are living in worrisome economic times. One year ago, I observed that US President Donald Trump’s bullying of companies and individuals who get in his way is reminiscent of Benito Mussolini in the 1920s. Like Mussolini, Trump poses a clear danger to the rule of law.
My subject here, however, is the tax legislation that Trump signed into law in December, on the promise that reducing the rate at which corporate profits are taxed will help an ailing US economy.
Political Responses to the Malaise
For several decades, the US economy has exhibited various symptoms of economic malaise. Now, we have a political upheaval on our hands. While real (inflation-adjusted) median wages have been nearly stagnant for decades, private saving from profits and enormous capital gains have continued apace. As asset prices – to say nothing of the wealth-wage ratio – have climbed to vertiginous levels, established wealth has grown more powerful, and wealth managers have done well.
PHILADELPHIA – We are living in worrisome economic times. One year ago, I observed that US President Donald Trump’s bullying of companies and individuals who get in his way is reminiscent of Benito Mussolini in the 1920s. Like Mussolini, Trump poses a clear danger to the rule of law.
My subject here, however, is the tax legislation that Trump signed into law in December, on the promise that reducing the rate at which corporate profits are taxed will help an ailing US economy.
Political Responses to the Malaise
For several decades, the US economy has exhibited various symptoms of economic malaise. Now, we have a political upheaval on our hands. While real (inflation-adjusted) median wages have been nearly stagnant for decades, private saving from profits and enormous capital gains have continued apace. As asset prices – to say nothing of the wealth-wage ratio – have climbed to vertiginous levels, established wealth has grown more powerful, and wealth managers have done well.