From 1983-1999, Washington and voters demanded deficit reduction & politicians were pressured to pay for all new promises. So they had to appeal to voters without the lazy Santa Claus-pandering of free tax cuts & spending. Today's politicians wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes.

Such a pleasure to talk tax policy today The Brookings Institution with this panel. Also check out the companion symposium at JEP. And thanks to Bill Gale, Timothy Taylor, and David Wessel! The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017: Lessons learned and the debate ahead brookings.edu/events/the-tax…

TGIF and I’m looking forward to tonight’s pet roast. As the child of immigrants, nothing like a couple of beers and a few grilled dogs on a Friday night.

This is a great livestream of our JEP symposium about the TCJA and its expiration . . . brookings.edu/events/the-tax…

This sounds excellent. You had me at "A pragmatist . . . measured, thoughtful and not especially reactionary" wsj.com/politics/elect…

Is a "mean turnaround" a particularly rude desk reject?

Hey Donald J. Trump in case you want to learn about this and do some reforms, there is social scientific analysis: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Yes: “they are likely to signal that more rate moves are coming…” Because the Fed tends to move steadily in the same direction, a small cut can have big effects and lower long rates.

Good thread once the typo corrected…

In his dissertation, my graduate student showed that political endorsements by scientific publications: (1) don't convince anyone about politics; (2) make people less likely to believe scientists when it comes to vaccines, health advisories, etc. nature.com/articles/s4156…

If only Scientific American had more social scientists . . .

It is impossible to stabilize deficits with 2 systems (that are supposedly mostly self-financed) instead running a deficit leaping to 11% of GDP including interest. Compared to antipoverty spending continuing to remain steady at 4-5% of GDP indefinitely. Yes, everything should

How do you lower prices? Trump: reduce supply. Oh dear. Basic laws of economics taking a real beating at his rallies these days.

There is a huge difference between presidential candidates’ platforms on fiscal responsibility

Hello?!? Economist here. It’s completely backwards for a real estate agent working for a buyer to charge the buyer more if that buyer pays a higher price for a house.

Fed watchers seem a little worked up because 1/4 of one percent happened this meeting rather than next. For the economy, yawn.

Remember that - to keep those lefty socialists out of power - we must elect this guy with the massive tariffs (taxes), soaring spending, runaway deficits, Federal Reserve meddling, special interest giveaways, and invasive new economic controls. Or else the socialists win. 🙄

This. The soft landing is a big L for Team Transitory, who was terrified that rate hikes would crush the economy. It's a win for Team Rational Expectations, actually.