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, the second of three, reviews the historical origins of the Laffer Curve from the Middle Ages through the 19th century. It begins with the work of Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, whose work came to the attention of economist Robert Mundell in 1971. Mundell...

This article, the third of three, examines the historical origins of the Laffer Curve in the 20th century through the 1970s. It notes that Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon often invoked Laffer Curve arguments in the 1920s. In the 1930s, economists John Maynard Keynes and Joseph Schumpeter made...

This article, the first of three, reviews the origins of the Laffer Curve in the 1970s. Notes that economist Norman Ture, who worked closely with Rep. Jack Kemp, probably had more to do with popularizing the idea of a tax cut that could pay for itself than economist Arthur Laffer did

All tax theorists recognize that capital gains taxes ought to apply only to real gains; that is, those that are adjusted for inflation. This has never been the case in American history. As a consequence, a considerable portion of inflationary gains have been taxed as if they are real, according...

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...

Popular discussion of income and wealth distribution tend to focus on snapshots of distribution at a given moment in time, making it appear more unequal than it really is. This paper looks at mobility in and out of income and wealth distribution classes. It finds that all empirical measures of...