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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (6742)	12/13/2005 10:43:33 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542043

This was what Krugman calls the "attractive face" but Strauss called the "noble lie". The neocons don't believe this, they agree it's voodoo economincs privately, but this is the story that they will unite behind in public. They think the public is too stupid to see through it. Supply side economics is pretty much like Communist economics. Both are grandiose notions that somebody could make work on paper in college dissertations. But trying to put these notions in practise on top of some existing economic structure is bound to fail. On top of all this, "serious economists" jump on the band wagon of politicians trying to use these notions as a tool to gain power. These politicians are not rocket scientists. What they understand is power. How to get it. How to keep it. That is their primary concern. These economic notions are only a tool to achieve power and the perks that go along with it (eg flying around in Air Force One and having the band strike up hail to the chief as one struts into the room). For that, the politicians will do anything. And, may be even to spend a few hours listening to some econmists try to explain the underlying rationale. Maybe.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (6742)	12/13/2005 8:23:37 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542043

I think that there are still people who bought into that nonsense about the Lafer curve and the notion that cutting taxes would bring in more revenue. The Lafer curve was hardly nonsense. The idea was that at some point increasing taxes decreases revenue. Revenue could be plotted as a curve with the highest revenue comming at a tax rate below 100%, not at 100%. That idea is not just true, it should be obvious. The important question for people who's prime objective is to maximize revenue is than what point of the curve are we at. Raising taxes can raise revenue and often does esp. in the short run. The "Lafer curve" does not dispute that. Tim