Author Description

Product Description As the stock market rises to dizzying heights while wages increase with agonizing slowness, many in Washington and elsewhere decry corporate greed, call for ever-higher minimum wages, and say that raising taxes to decrease the budget deficit will make the economy grow faster.According to Alan Reynolds, this conventional wisdom has it backwards. As he demonstrates in this book, high marginal tax rates on capital, labor, and savings suppress economic growth, increase inequality, and decrease the very federal tax receipts they are intended to enlarge. Reynolds illustrates that the ultimate burden of taxes on capital and savings falls on labor, and what appear to politicians to be "soak the rich" taxes are in fact "soak the poor" measures in disguise.Using an abundance of hard evidence and the latest developments in economic theory, Reynolds shows how Washington's penchant for high, progressive taxes damages the dollar and suppresses savings, investment, agriculture, labor, and even federal revenues. He skewers the conventional thinkers with powerful evidence that all income categories gained during the economic boom fueled by the Reagan tax cuts, and that attempts to use the tax system to impose economic equality lead to a stagnant economy and greater inequality. Finally, Reynolds makes a powerful case for a low, flat tax that can increase national wealth, equality, and federal tax receipts.Reynolds argues that the problem with today's economy is not greedy capitalists, but a greedy government. He presents a wealth of information to prove that the only way to help workers is to help everybody--by decreasing our punitive tax rates against saving and investing. From the Publisher Hudson Institute Publicaiton About the Author Alan Reynolds is director of economic research at Hudson Institute. He served as director of research for the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, chaired by Jack Kemp. He is a frequent c