Arthur Laffer is making news by predicting the U.S. economy will collapse next year following the George W. Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. His theory on the Obama tax plan is based on how the super-rich can choose when and how they collect their income to evade having to pay their taxes. Laffer seems to think the economy is doing better this year than it should because these aristocrats are collecting a lot more of their loot and spending a lot more of their money before taxes rise. He says that when taxes go up, Americans who can will choose to make a lot less money, thus reducing the government's tax revenue.
Article Resource: Arthur Laffer predicts collapse when Bush tax cuts expire in 2010
Expired Bush tax cuts 2010
Arthur Laffer became very famous when he influenced the Reagan administration to cut taxes. His Laffer Curve regarding taxes appears in some of the economic textbooks. Laffer, in his Wall Street Journal column, said that Reagan tax cuts brought the economy out of what was the worst U.S. recession since the Depression — until the Mt. Everest recession we’re nevertheless trying to get out of now made that one look like a speed bump. He said when all of these tax cuts went into effect on Jan. 1, 1983 the economy took off like a rocket, with average real growth reaching 7.5 percent in 1983 and 5.5 percent in 1984. He doesn’t seem to explain at all how Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 in the face of two wars eventually ran the U.S. economy into the ground and destroyed a spending budget surplus he inherited from Bill Clinton.
The Arthur Laffer curveball
The Laffer Curve tax cut argument misleads his readers, Asha Bangalore at Northern Trust reports. As an additional recession set in following the huge Reaganonomic era, Bangalore wonders why the economy posted substantial growth after tax increases were implemented by Bill Clinton in 1993. A revival of bank lending after the Reagan hangover led to self-sustained growth despite the tax increases. Bangalore also points out that if the Laffer Curve theory about tax cuts is really valid, then the U.S. economy would have done better than record the weakest period of economic expansion in history following the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.
Obama tax plan lower than Reagan’s
Arther Laffer’s predictions of economic collapse when tax cuts expire in 2010 is questioned by The Motely Fool as well. In his column Laffer says we’re all going to die when the highest federal personal income tax rate goes to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. The Fool says it is worth noting that the 1983 cuts Laffer remembers so fondly lowered top rates from 69.13 percent to 50 percent. Top marginal tax rates under all but one year of Ronald Regan’s presidency were a lot more than 50 percent. The Obama tax plan wants to revert the highest personal income tax rates to be somewhere around 39.6 percent, where they were within the ’90s when the economy boomed and the government collected more taxes than it spent.
Arther Laffer says he feels your pain
Arther Laffer, the chairman of an investment consulting firm and therefore is very wealthy, is making predictions of economic collapse from a very narrow point of view. Bangalore goes further to point out that all of the obstacles the economy will face in 2011 have little to do with tax increases. A severe credit crunch, lackluster job growth, and housing market challenges are factors that could have far greater influence on the economy. Most plan to keep their head up to survive. But when Arthur Laffer’s personal income tax rate goes up 5 percent, the millions he won’t pocket will seem like the end of the world indeed.
Citations
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704113504575264513748386610.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
Northern Trust
northerntrust.com/pws/jsp/display2.jsp?XML=pages/nt/0601/1138283678319_6.xml&TYPE=interior&er=dgcDetail&c=primary/resource/1006/1275944180574_442.xml
Motley Fool
caps.fool.com/Blogs/ViewPost.aspx?bpid=403124&t=01003534026331805883
No comments:
Post a Comment