This article examines an array of new tax questions that have arisen, or are about to arise, as a result of changes in market practice and the legal rules governing over-the-counter derivative financial instruments (“swaps”). The changes to the regulatory laws governing swaps are still a...

This article discusses the prospects for long-term deficit reduction given the strenuous opposition to higher taxes by influential Republican adviser Grover Norquist, who has gotten virtually every Republican in Congress to sign his no-new-taxes pledge

There have been a number of proposals lately to impose a new tax on securities or financial transactions, both as a revenue measure and a way of disciplining Wall Street speculation. This article argues that such a tax would be a bad idea and that it makes more sense to tax financial activities...

This article reviews the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 after 25 years. While there are many ways that TRA 1986 has permanently altered the structure of federal taxation, it is hard to find ways in which it changed anything real in terms of economic growth, employment, or productivity....

Republicans frequently criticize Democrats for "class warfare" when they suggest raising taxes on the rich. But Republicans also engage in class warfare by regularly attacking the close to half of all federal income tax filers with no tax liability. They imply that this is a major source of the...

Given the strenuous resistance of Republicans to any tax increase, it would seem that voluntary taxation is the only kind they will accept. This being the case, this article examines the theory and history of voluntary taxation. While it may be viable in certain cases in small, cohesive...

This article takes a critical view of tax preferences targeted at the manufacturing sector. Their justification is dubious and they move in the opposite direction of tax reform. If people are genuinely concerned about the competitiveness of American industry, replacing the corporate income tax...

Barack Obama has proposed raising taxes on the well-to-do, both for revenue and distributional reasons. This raises, anew, the question of what the revenue-maximizing top rate is. Conservatives continually assert that the United States is always on the wrong side of the "Laffer Curve," such that...