Personally, I think liberals are delusional on a whole host of issues and I think I’m being generous at that. The option is they’re evil purveyors of cynical negativism designed to enhance their own power.I can be persuaded either way….
The subject of the study was a review of an analysis by Peter Diamond, also a Nobel laureate, and Emmanuel Saez. Essentially these two economists – both highly respected (ed. note Paul Krugman is respected and a Nobel laureate) - qualified three conditions that would allow for proper and appropriate use of mathematical modeling to make policy decisions. Now, we – you and I – are not economists, we don’t play one on TV (ed. oddly, there no soap opera called “Days of our Fractional Banking System” with bad acting and skimpy clothing – not that there’s anything wrong with skimpy clothing) and I don’t stay at Holiday Inn Expresses. Still, we probably think that three conditions might be a bit light on the development of economic policy on an economy the size of the United States. The folks at AEI thought so to and have thoroughly deconstructed the Diamond-Saez model. James Pethokoukis has a new article out, New study shows why heavily taxing the rich won’t work, that eviscerates the argument that rates for the “rich” should be moved to 73% and that such rates will not adversely affect the economy. Jeff Goldstein over at Protein Wisdom has an excellent analysis of the analysis. While Pethokoukis is a policy wonk type of dude, Jeff is far more earthy (yes, I call him Jeff; he calls me “who?”) guy and makes a great point, the same one that I made not long ago in the Moocher State article. Don’t let the progressives distract you from the argument by setting the terms of the debate. Jeff gets on his little brown hobbyhorse on the subject of tax fairness. Go read his commentary for a great take-down of orthodox progressives and the republicans who love them. Here’s a little taste to whet the appetite.If you want to beat the left, you need to learn to beat them by refusing to play their game. We have a perfect opportunity to take back “fairness” and “equality” from the political ideology that has so bastardized those terms that they now mean precisely their opposites.Enjoy, friends.