Taxes

Group of young African kids walking with buckets and jerrycans on their head as they prepare to bring clean water back to their village.

^{Nathan Lewis
October 1, 2025
Economic Policy, Taxes

5}

How Africa Can Get Rich

_{Nathan Lewis
October 1, 2025
Economic Policy, Taxes

5}

Africa too can get rich, as once-poor Asian countries have, but not if governments keep doing what they've been doing. Basically, they will have to throw off the stifling tax systems inherited from their prior colonial governments. There are other things you can add to that. But, I think we can say, with confidence, that if things stay as they are, nothing is possible. Read More ›

Fifty Hundred Dollar Banknote. Closeup of 50 USD bill. American Money. USA Currency, Cash Money as Background

^{Nathan Lewis
September 8, 2025
National Debt, Taxes

7}

How to Avoid Sovereign Default

_{Nathan Lewis
September 8, 2025
National Debt, Taxes

7}

Governments sometimes get themselves into trouble with too much debt. Early economist Adam Smith devoted the last chapter of his famous Wealth of Nations (1776) to the topic of sovereign default. “The progress of the enormous debts which at present oppress, and will in the long-run probably ruin, all the great nations of Europe, has been pretty uniform,” Smith wrote. “The practice of funding [financing deficits with debt] has gradually enfeebled every state which has adopted it.” Read More ›

11/3/1987 President Reagan shaking hands with Donald Trump at a reception for members of the "Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies" Foundation in the Blue Room

^{George Gilder and Richard Vigilante
August 8, 2025
Taxes

4}

George Gilder: Trump is Reagan’s True Heir

_{George Gilder and Richard Vigilante
August 8, 2025
Taxes

4}

We are confirmed free traders. Trade flows are information. In our information theory of the economy, nothing is more important than letting information flow undistorted. Still, we are not especially worried about Trump’s tariff threats because on net, he is doing the economy far more good than bad. The big economics lesson of the past 40 years has been the decisiveness of tax policy. Read More ›

^{Donald Nielsen
July 23, 2025
Taxes

3}

Gov. Ferguson Strips Away Washington’s Appeal with Slate of Tax Increases

_{Donald Nielsen
July 23, 2025
Taxes

3}

Gov. Bob Ferguson recently signed into law the largest tax increase in state history. It included a 6-cent per gallon increase in the gas tax. Washington already had the third-highest gas price in the country, exceeded only by California and Hawaii. Next, Ferguson approved a rent control package that limits rent increases. Any student of economics knows that if you restrict a business’s ability to make a profit, the business will stop investing. Read More ›

President Donald J. Trump signs an Executive Order on on the Administration’s tariff plans at a “Make America Healthy Again” event, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in the White House Rose Gardent. (Official White House Photo by Abe McNatt)

^{Nathan Lewis
April 24, 2025
Economic Policy, Taxes

7}

Tariffs Done Wrong

_{Nathan Lewis
April 24, 2025
Economic Policy, Taxes

7}

Economic Nationalism, done right, could work very well for the United States in coming decades. The most glorious period for US business, before 1913, was a time of high tariffs and controlled immigration. But, it was also a time when there was no Income Tax; and, in this pre-Federal Reserve era, the money was fixed to gold. The result was very good. The United States, at first a promising “emerging market,” ended up a global superpower. Read More ›

Airplane Flying Over Colorful Cargo Containers

^{Nathan Lewis
February 17, 2025
Economic Policy, Taxes

5}

A New Era of Economic Nationalism

_{Nathan Lewis
February 17, 2025
Economic Policy, Taxes

5}

The United States was founded on Free Trade. And, high tariffs. Domestically, the United States had exceptional economic policy. There were hardly any taxes, and the currency was reliably fixed to gold. Trade was Free between States. With what I've called "The Magic Formula" (Low Taxes and Stable Money), the US got richer — even with high tariffs with the rest of the world. Read More ›

^{Nathan Lewis
October 21, 2024
Taxes

8}

Now Let’s Get Rid of the Income Tax

_{Nathan Lewis
October 21, 2024
Taxes

8}

Presidential Candidate Donald Trump recently floated the idea of getting rid of the Income Tax completely. I think this is a great idea — and so did the Founders themselves, who effectively barred Direct Taxes in the Constitution, including the Income Tax, until it was legalized in the Sixteenth Amendment of 1913. Before 1913, there was no Income Tax in the United States. Read More ›

^{Nathan Lewis
October 10, 2024
Taxes

7}

Trump’s Tax Plan Will Be Fine

_{Nathan Lewis
October 10, 2024
Taxes

7}

The Great Depression got started with the passage of the Smoot Hawley Tariff in the United States, by the Republican Party, which immediately set off a cascade of retaliatory tariffs worldwide. This alone did not cause the Great Depression, but it did cause the initial downturn. This was followed by a long string of bad decisions in reaction to that downturn, such as Republican Herbert Hoover's 1932 tax increase which took the top income tax rate from 25% to 63%. Read More ›

^{Jonathan Lesser
August 12, 2023
Taxes

4}

State’s Climate Act Isn’t Worth Price We’re Paying

_{Jonathan Lesser
August 12, 2023
Taxes

4}

Washington state’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act (CCA), although high-minded in spirit, will do nothing to protect the state’s economy and environment from the effects of climate change. But what the CCA is already doing is burdening state residents and businesses with higher energy costs. Read More ›

Safe-haven currency for investment, financial concept : US 100 USD dollar banknotes on a table, depict most popular asset for central bank reserve / global money for using or paying debt in the world

^{Nathan Lewis
March 29, 2023
Taxes

4}

“Taxing All Income The Same” Done Right

_{Nathan Lewis
March 29, 2023
Taxes

4}

“Taxing all income the same” is the right idea. Without it, we are lost at sea where every possible stupidity can be justified by “fairness.” This is the principle of Uniformity, and it should be the basis for our tax system of the future. Read More ›