by Henry Oliner | Nov 6, 2019 | Economics
Phil Gramm and John F. Early write in The Wall Street Journal The Truth About Income Inequality In all, leaving out taxes and most transfers overstates inequality by more than 300%, as measured by the ratio of the top quintile’s income to the bottom quintile’s. More...
by Henry Oliner | Oct 30, 2019 | Economics, Politics, Progressivism, Taxes
From Kevin Williamson at National Review, Elizabeth Warren’s Financial Berlin Wall: The cynical among us might also suspect that the proposal, which will produce a great deal of angst and wailing, is intended to produce a great deal of angst and wailing, which will...
by Henry Oliner | Jun 29, 2019 | Economics
Inequality masks a concern for poverty. Then why do we not simply address the problem of poverty? Why do we cloak it with concern for inequality? If five of my associates with similar incomes sat at a table and Bill Gates sat down with us, the inequality at that table...
by Henry Oliner | Dec 24, 2017 | Economics, Taxes
by Henry Oliner Our laws frequently have counterproductive consequences. We fail to combine hard headed reality with soft hearted intentions. The estate tax has the objective of redistributing excess wealth to higher social purposes. The outcomes indicate this is...
by Henry Oliner | Jul 14, 2017 | Economics
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved by painfully high taxes...
