RealClearMarkets Articles

Suggestions that Republicans should allow the top federal individual tax rate to revert from 37 percent to 39.6 percent have sparked significant debate within the party as negotiations continue over how to fund the renewal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). While adjusting tax rates is one way to raise revenue, policymakers should seriously consider alternative methods that avoid the economic risks associated with higher marginal rates.  Indeed, the practical impact of raising the top rate to 39.6 percent may be limited, given that much of the income of the most affluent taxpayers does...

Lawyers for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Google have sparred in a Washington, D.C., courtroom in the recent weeks, as the remedies trial for the antitrust case U.S. v. Google continues to unfold. The government secured a dubious ruling in its favor last summer, which is likely to fall on appeal. First, however, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta must prescribe remedies to mend the supposed ills caused by Google’s supposed misbehavior. Reflecting on the DOJ’s arguments, one wonders exactly what the agency thinks it’s doing. Antitrust law, rightly...

The U.S. Senate once again seems poised to attempt to impose a cap on credit card interchange fees by re-introducing the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). Legislatures in numerous other states have also put forth rate cap legislation. Supporters of these caps as well as other mandates in this realm have an overly simple view of our nation’s complex payment system, and many perceive--incorrectly--credit cards as being mere middlemen that deliver nothing of value. If that is true, they reason, then taking steps to reduce their revenue will save customers money. However, an...

Municipal bonds have been the principal engine for building and modernizing America’s infrastructure for more than 150 years. They have supported the development of roads, bridges, airports, water systems, schools, hospitals, public transportation and energy grid upgrades across the country. So why are some suggesting that Congress should end their tax-exempt status and make them harder to use? That’s the question on the minds of a growing chorus of experts, local officials and at least one group of powerful House leaders. They are warning Congress that removing the tax-exempt...

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Andrew Ferguson recently spoke to Yale’s CEO Caucus. Amongst the attendees were the CEOs of J.P. Morgan, GAP, Dell, and Goldman Sachs. Chair Ferguson assured the CEOs that under his leadership the FTC would not let “good” mergers “die on the vine,” but would block mergers, acquisitions, and other transactions if the agency determined they would “hurt Americans economically.” Chair Ferguson’s comments could have been made by almost any of his predecessors. After all, who could oppose “good”...

The overwhelming majority of Americans use Google’s search engine everyday, whether to check sports scores, read the news(headlines), understand weird health symptoms or look for a myriad of other things. Despite these habits being a consumer choice due to the product’s superior quality (who wants to “Bing” something?), the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Google on the grounds of monopolizing online search through its exclusivity agreement with Apple. And the federal government won their case in...

This April could be the last time small start-ups like mine enjoy the tax breaks of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).  Starting something new is always scary. I remember the fear I felt launching my literary magazine at the end of 2024. As I stood in line for hours at city hall waiting to file my “Doing Business As” forms, I knew it might take a while for the business to become profitable, but I was grateful that in the meantime, I could write off some of my expenses (including the paperwork filing process to get started) on my taxes. Unless Congress extends TCJA, it will be...

“A couple employees left for the rest of the day. They were pretty rattled.” Those were the words of multi-restaurant owner and Georgetown Events Hospitality Group president Bo Blair, in a Washington Post report by Tim Carman, Warren Rojas, and Maria Luisa Paul. Blair was referencing the arrival of ICE agents at various restaurants in town, including at least one of his own, and “demand letters” served by the agents who were asking for documented proof that employees were eligible to work in the United States. It was difficult to read the report without feeling...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent justifies President Trump’s rapidly changing tariff policies on the grounds that they create strategic uncertainty. Trump’s tariffs have three contradictory goals--raising revenue, protecting manufacturing, and negotiating leverage -- strategic uncertainty can plausibly be used to achieve only one of them. Tariff uncertainty does not help domestic manufacturing. Uncertainty about the future of tariff policy severely undermines domestic manufacturing growth and development. Expansion of manufacturing takes years to complete,...

From the minute the money is spent, government spending slows economic growth. That’s because central planning of resources is central planning of resources. That government spending is an economy-sapping tax requires mention as economists and economic pundits speculate on who will blink first in response to a mindless tariff war, Donald Trump or Xi Jinping. Oh well, who will? The Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Sternberg believes it could be Trump. About who will win, Sternberg would likely agree that no one wins a tariff war simply because there’s no warring in trade....

With National Small Business Week upon us, President Trump and Republicans in Congress are accelerating their work on pro-growth tax reform to deliver for family-owned and Main Street businesses.   The first step to preserving and making permanent the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of President Trump’s first term is agreeing to a budget approach that allows the tax cuts to move through Congress faster and by a simple majority vote. Faced with a razor-thin majority, Congressional Republicans impressively beat all expectations by vaulting that difficult legislative hurdle in...

On April 17, a federal court handed down its decision in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit targeting Google’s ad tech, which are a suite of advertising products and services that provide thousands of businesses of all sizes with cost-effective and convenient ways to connect with their customers.  While the court found that the DOJ had failed to prove that Google’s advertiser tools constituted a relevant market in which the company enjoys a monopoly, Judge Brinkema did agree with the government that Google had violated the Sherman Act by monopolizing and unlawfully...

Politicians often forget that the more they prescribe how companies deliver a service, the costlier and less accessible it becomes.  The excessive regulation of consumer credit is a prime example of this maxim. For instance, at the federal level, the Dodd-Frank Act and the numerous regulations issued by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau effectively increased the cost of providing credit in their efforts to protect consumers, resulting in millions of low-income households being denied the ability to obtain credit. Why would North Carolina want to replicate that here? Access to credit...

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, legal sports betting in America has been expanding. Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C. have legalized the industry and 33 of those have legalized online sports betting in addition to retail settings. But as Americans move their betting to a safe and legal market and states rake millions in tax revenues, some policymakers are itching to slam the brakes with heavy-handed federal regulations. That’s a terrible bet. Contrary to claims, legalized sports betting...

“You better let me take this. They’d never believe it coming from you.” That’s legendary New York Times editor R.W. Apple at the end of a particularly expensive dinner with Times colleague Joseph Lelyveld. Though Lelyveld had extended the dinner invitation to Apple, and had chosen the venue, Apple’s spending resume included “the world’s single-trip expense-account record.” Only he could submit such a receipt.   The quotes and anecdotes come from Calvin Trillin’s 2024 book/memoir of sorts (review here), The Lede. Trillin’s...

When my boy Coleman was four, he asked for — and got — a Davy Crockett jacket and a coonskin cap for Christmas. Back when Disney celebrated bad asses instead of fruitcakes, he had watched a gazillion episodes of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. Ah, who remembers the words to The Ballad of Davy Crockett?  “…He killed him a b’ar when he was only three…” Coleman was always pretty good at picking his heroes. When he was nine, he wore a Cal Ripken #8 T-shirt every day for a couple of years. Not only was Davy the King of the Wild Frontier, but...

Biotech advancements often face delays due to bureaucracy, hindering the development of necessary therapies. Now is the time for us to overhaul the archaic procedural measures, including the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) outdated policies and procedures.  If we continue to permit bureaucracy to impede the advancement of science, then people will continue to die waiting for therapeutic advances – and that is unacceptable. With over 30 million Americans suffering from rare diseases, 95% of whom lack approved treatments, time is of the essence. FDA...

He may still turn things around, but it’s a shame about President Trump and the economy. All he had to do was nothing, and what they refer to as "the economy" would be soaring now. Of course, Trump wouldn’t be president if he had it within him to do nothing. Which is why every president is victimized by unforced errors. Referencing historian Stephen Ambrose (1936-2002), the “presidential gene” ensures monumental mistakes that are easy to spot from people on the sidelines. But that’s why the spotters are on the sidelines. The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle...

Every year leading up to Tax Day, Americans face a familiar and frustrating ritual: sorting through receipts, deciphering forms, clicking through software prompts, and hoping they haven’t made a costly mistake.  This annual headache of helping Uncle Sam rifle through your pockets is a personal nuisance and a national time sink that prevents you from doing something more useful and productive with your time. For the 2024 tax year, taxpayers spent a staggering 7.1 billion hours complying with the tax code. The economic cost of this hidden tax on time, based on private-sector labor...