THE END OF SUPPLY-SIDEISM. Chris Suellentrop notes that Republicans are beginning to abandon supply-side economics, one of the most overdue exoduses in economic history. Evidence comes from Bush's former chief economic adviser Greg Mankiw, who writes that "some supply-siders like to claim that the distortionary effect of taxes is so large that increasing tax rates reduces tax revenue. Like most economists, I don't find that conclusion credible for most tax hikes, and I doubt Mr. Paulson does either." Elsewhere, Ben Stein -- yeah, that one -- has a full-throated takedown of the economic illusion known as the Laffer Curve. "Supply side is fun," he writes, "in the same way it's fun to rationalize spending as if it were saving, and in the same way any theory is fun when it says that the easier, softer way is better than the hard way. But it doesn't work, or at least it hasn't worked yet. " No, it hasn't. And what a comfort that it only took the economic Ph.D.'s in the Republican Party three decades to figure that out!
--Ezra Klein
