Economic Policy

A reply to Robert Kuttner, “Peddling Krugman,” September-October 1996.

Supply-siders point to economic growth during the 1980s as a vindication of Reaganomics. But adjusting for the business cycle shows that the real rate of productivity growth has been the same over the past three decades.

Champions of the U.S. economic system say that Europe’s generous social protections cause high unemployment. But it’s the global economy that’s driving up joblessness in Europe–just as it increases income inequality in the United States.

The Third Way doesn’t have to be market conservatism in centrist clothing.

There are two great fiscal legacies of American liberalism since Franklin Roosevelt. One is the invention and broad public acceptance of social insurance-notably Social Security, unemployment compensation, and Medicare. The other is the use of public spending, both to increase human and physical productivity over the long term and for macroeconomic stimulus during recessions. There […]

Several leading Republicans now claim that a flat tax can lower most taxpayers’ burden, close loopholes, and avoid revenue shortfalls. Wrong on all counts.

The great bull market of the 1990s has generated euphoria in millions of inexperienced investors and laid the groundwork for privatization of Social Security. But extensive poll data suggest that investor expectations are grossly unrealistic.

Continuing the debate from “The Speed Limit,” by Alan S. Blinder, and “Why We Can Grow Faster,” by Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison (September-October 1997).

Working- and middle-class voters remain economically anxious. But in the absence of a convincing narrative that connects to their lives, many are concluding from their condition that the only remedy is rugged individualism.