Taxes

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 ›

Tax season with wooden alphabet blocks, calculator, pen on 1040 tax form backgrounda

^{Nathan Lewis
March 29, 2023
Taxes

8}

Why Joe Biden’s Tax Plan Isn’t Going To Work

_{Nathan Lewis
March 29, 2023
Taxes

8}

Socialists always have all kinds of fantasies, but they live in the same real world as the rest of us, and in the real world there are certain cause and effect relationships that are, by now, well known. Read More ›

The busy of port congestion loading and discharging containers services in maritime transports in World wide logistics

^{Nathan Lewis
October 24, 2021
Taxes

10}

Rationalizing Tariffs

_{Nathan Lewis
October 24, 2021
Taxes

10}

Economic Nationalism tends to boil down into two basic policies: tariffs, and limited immigration. Sometimes, in the past, it has meant currency devaluations, but today that is not really proposed. On a broader basis, it means that economic policy should result in positive outcomes, for the whole of the population. Read More ›

^{Nathan Lewis
September 15, 2021
Taxes

6}

We Are Going To Have A Much Smaller Federal Government

_{Nathan Lewis
September 15, 2021
Taxes

6}

The original Federal government of the Constitution was framed on the principle of a limited government of “Enumerated Powers.” In other words, it would handle a short and definite list of responsibilities. All other functions of government would be the responsibilities of the States. Read More ›

^{Scott S. Powell
May 10, 2019
Taxes

1}

How the U.S. Can Solve the Current Trade Tariff Impasse With China

_{Scott S. Powell
May 10, 2019
Taxes

1}

Trade talks between the U.S. and China have hit an impasse, but there is surprising bipartisan support for the Trump administration to stay the course on what will be a long process to resolve the full range of trade problems specific to China. Success on this first round of trade negotiations in the form of ending the tariff penalties that are at the heart of a year-old trade war, with further reduction and even elimination of tariffs on as many categories as possible, should actually be attainable in the near term. Future rounds of trade talks to find remedies for China’s intellectual property and trademark theft, national security threats, and forced technology transfer from American companies doing business in China …