How Government Policy Promotes Wealth Inequality
'Simply leveling wealth from the top still will leave a large number of households holding zero percent of all societal wealth,' writes our regular columnist, a former Treasury official.
Regulation, Kavanaugh, Trump & the Indexing of Capital Gains
'Presidents and political parties favor regulation mainly when it when it advances their own agenda, regardless of the number of pages it adds to the Federal Register,' writes our...
New tax law reveals imbalance in homeownership benefits
'The TCJA has left the nation with an upside-down tax incentive for homeownership that applies to only about one-tenth of all households—nearly all of them with high incomes,' writes our guest columnist.
Donald Trump’s $15,000-a-year Social Security Bonus
Where to begin reforming Social Security? Our guest columnist would start by eliminating the late-life fatherhood benefit that favors the president and others.
Two ‘Santas’ Can Be Worse Than One
In 1976, Jude Wanniski recommended the 'Two Santas' strategy, whereby Republicans would be as generous with tax cuts as Democrats were with spending. The Trump tax cut is only...
That Confusing ‘Pass-Through’ Provision
Because Congress insisted on producing the new tax bill in less than two months, JCT, IRS, and Treasury were overwhelmed and did not complete a proper complexity analysis, writes...
A Debt Straitjacket? Or a Misdiagnosed Disease?
With public and private debt so high across the developed world, International Economy magazine asked a group of economists, including this RIJ guest columnist: “Has the world been fitted...
Lessons from Tax Reform School
Our guest columnist, a veteran of the 1986 federal tax overhaul, reveals the kind of chain reaction that can occur when you change the tax code.
Trump’s Tax Reform Dilemma
Tax reform will require more than the mere elimination of waste, fraud and abuse in government, warns our guest columnist, a former Treasury official. Popular subsidies, like the tax...
The Fight over Symbols Prevents Real Reform
With health, immigration, trade, and tax policy, the need for real improvements takes a backseat to counterproductive fights over political symbolism, writes our guest columnist, an economist and former...
Six Bipartisan Opportunities for the President-Elect
'Never before have so many promises been made for the future, both for unsustainable rates of spending growth and lower taxes,' writes our guest columnist, a former deputy assistant...
Trump, Buffett, and how the wealthy are taxed
'At the end of the day, tweaks to the individual income tax system, including higher tax rates, are unlikely to increase dramatically the taxes paid by the very wealthy,'...
Student Debt Weighs on All of Us
'If this debt policy additionally discourages risk taking and marriage after education, then all this debt may even reduce investment over time in education, businesses, and homes combined,' writes...
The ‘Save Our Social Security Act of 2016’: A Major Step Toward Reform
These changes in the proposed bi-partisan proposal would bring the Social Security system close to long-term solvency, writes this Urban Institute economist and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the...
Social Security Spousal Benefits Still Unfair
The recent closure of the "file and suspend" loophole as a Social Security claiming strategy doesn't make spousal and survivor benefits under the program any less unfair, writes this...
Tax Corporations Less, and Capital Gains More?
Effective tax reform will undoubtedly require some difficult compromises. In this opinion piece, retirement expert Gene Steuerle of the Urban Institute describes a potential trade-off that is bound to...
Solvency Isn’t Social Security’s Only Problem
We need to reform the program’s benefit structure, now misaligned with its original anti-poverty goals, as much as we need to reform its financing structure, writes the Urban Institute...
Don’t Subsidize ‘Middle-Age Retirement’
The author argues that his fellow liberals shouldn’t oppose an increase in the minimum age for claiming Social Security.
How Social Security Can Make Up for Lost Pensions
Under my plan, the SSA would tell people their benefit at a specific retirement age (either an earliest age or a "normal" age). Then it would show a simple...
