My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy warns against wealth taxes. A slice:
Reducing inequality is also a poor means to fix whatever these candidates think ails America. In a 2013 paper published by the Brookings Institution, economist Scott Winship reviewed claims made about inequality and their negative impact on various aspects of our lives. In a summary of that paper for National Affairs, he writes that there’s “little basis for thinking that inequality is at the root of our economic challenges, and therefore for believing that reducing inequality would meaningfully address our lagging growth, enable greater mobility, avert future financial crises, or secure America’s democratic institutions.”
“The surest way to discourage innovators is to treat them and their inventions as guilty until proven innocent” – so explains my Mercatus Center colleague Adam Thierer.
Richard Ebeling laments the revival of collectivist faith.
George Will doubts that Elizabeth Warren would defeat Trump in 2020.
P.J. O’Rourke is now a columnist for the Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt from his first contribution:
Nonetheless, aspiring politicians obviously do need BS degrees. Any class they can BS their way through will prove valuable in coming years.
More important are the academic disciplines that proto-politicos need to avoid:
Mathematics — One look at the federal budget would make a mathematician’s head explode.
Logic — Putting a logical person in politics is like putting an astrologer in charge of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Literature and English Composition — Have you read the memoirs by successful politicians after they’ve left office? They didn’t achieve preeminence by knowing how to recognize a competent ghostwriter.
