ROBERT BARROS RECEPT

Robert J. Barro är professor i ekonomi vid Harvard University och senior fellow vid Stanford University's Hoover Institution. I en artikel i Wall Street Journal 22 januari 2009 är han kritisk till Obamaadmnistrationens åtgärder för att skapa sysselsättning. Han betvivlar att multiplikatorn i den amerikanska ekonomi avviker påtagligt från 0. Adminstrationen räknar med 1,5.

Barros recept är:

Much more focus should be on incentives for people and businesses to invest, produce and work. On the tax side, we should avoid programs that throw money at people and emphasize instead reductions in marginal income-tax rates -- especially where these rates are already high and fall on capital income. Eliminating the federal corporate income tax would be brilliant. On the spending side, the main point is that we should not be considering massive public-works programs that do not pass muster from the perspective of cost-benefit analysis. Just as in the 1980s, when extreme supply-side views on tax cuts were unjustified, it is wrong now to think that added government spending is free.

Läs en gång till: Eliminating the federal corporate income tax would be brilliant.