Saturday, August 2, 2008

Obama's "startling economic illiteracy"

Michael J. Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford, had an excellent column in this week's Wall Street Journal regarding some of Barack Obama's economic proposals. Here's his lead:

What if I told you that a prominent global political figure in recent months has proposed: abrogating key features of his government's contracts with energy companies; unilaterally renegotiating his country's international economic treaties; dramatically raising marginal tax rates on the "rich" to levels not seen in his country in three decades (which would make them among the highest in the world); and changing his country's social insurance system into explicit welfare by severing the link between taxes and benefits?

The first name that came to mind would probably not be Barack Obama, possibly our nation's next president. Yet despite his obvious general intelligence, and uplifting and motivational eloquence, Sen. Obama reveals this startling economic illiteracy in his policy proposals and economic pronouncements. From the property rights and rule of (contract) law foundations of a successful market economy to the specifics of tax, spending, energy, regulatory and trade policy, if the proposals espoused by candidate Obama ever became law, the American economy would suffer a serious setback.

The italics are mine. Read the good professor's whole column but keep in mind the italicized section. These are the "changes" Obama keeps talking about.

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