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August 23, 2012 at 07:33 AM
The September issue of Research magazine puts a prime focus on the upcoming election. In “Where Will They Steer Us?” Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute looks at the political and policy ramifications of Wall Street reform. Failing to hold Big Finance acccountable should be a vulnerability for President Obama, she argues, but to capitalize on it Mitt Romney must take a clear stand for ending Too Big To Fail.
In “A Bold New Direction,” Senior Editor Kenneth Silber sketches out a radical tax overhaul that the winner of the election could use to address economic and fiscal problems and move beyond political deadlock. The proposed approach centers on replacing the income tax with an innovative type of consumption tax, the “X tax.”
Other September highlights include: “Seeking High Performance With Low Risk,” Prof. Michael Finke’s analysis of how low-risk investments can have outsize returns; “Clearing’s New Space,” Jane Wollman Rusoff’s report on the fast-changing clearing industry; and Bill Good’s Sales Seminar column, “Cold Calling 2012.”
Click through the following slides to preview the September issue of Research magazine.
Nicole Gelinas, contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, argues that proposals for economic policy will not get much traction unless they include plans to put a definitive end to Too Big To Fail. Many voters, she writes, remain “white-hot enraged” over Wall Street bailouts.
President Obama, in Gelinas’ view, is vulnerable on the issue of financial reform, given shortcomings of the Dodd-Frank legislation. Mitt Romney’s background in private equity, she contends, could become a selling point—if he shows he will draw on it to make Big Finance accountable.
“Romney’s best bet,’ she writes, “is to embrace his past before it embraces him—and to promise that he’ll use his unique skills to ensure that markets subject Wall Street to the same medicine that the rest of America has taken in the past four decades.”
Research Senior Editor Kenneth Silber offers some advice to the winner of the presidential election, focused on remaking the tax system.
The new president should seek to replace the income tax with a progressive consumption tax or “X tax,” according to Silber. Such a tax, first theorized by the late economist David Bradford, has gotten renewed attention from policy analysts as a more efficient system that boosts incentives for saving and investing. In addition, Silber proposes replacing the payroll tax with a carbon tax, aimed at reducing climate risks and dependence on foreign oil.
The next president, Silber writes, “could be the man who got rid of the income tax and payroll tax, improving the nation’s economic and fiscal prospects while aiding the environment and national security in the process.”
Seeking High Performance With Low Risk
Prof. Michael Finke delves into recent research on the performance and potential of low-risk investments.
