An Almost Fed Reserve Chairman Calls For Reduced Tax Rates And Base Broadening

From The Wall Street Journal, "Tax Reform Is the Swiftest Path to Growth" by R Glenn Hubbard:

Broadening the tax base and sharply lowering marginal tax rates can raise gross-domestic-product growth by a half to a full percentage point per year over a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. tax policy by economists Alan Auerbach and Kevin Hassett. A sustained economic expansion will reduce America's high rate of joblessness.***Tax reform, by reducing or eliminating the double taxation of corporate equity and offering incentives for new business investment, will accelerate the economy's needed turn to investment. And lower business tax burdens increase U.S. competitiveness in exports and trade.***[T]ax reform is a necessary precondition for any serious national discussion of long-term deficit reduction.

Read the complete article here.

Hubbard is dean of Columbia Business School and was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. Hubbard was considered, along with Bernanke, for nomination as chairman of the Federal Reserve after Greenspan.

And just for fun, a Columbia Business School satire of Dean Glenn Hubbard: