Back to the Future

Larry Kudlow, not one of my favorite commentators because he's so partisan, has an article at NRO with some good thoughts on monetary and fiscal policy. He starts by bucking up Bernanke:

Bernanke has taken a lot of criticism in the last year, and I think much of it is undeserved. Wall Street claims that he’s an isolated academic, unaware of the real-world difficulties of sagging capital markets, slumping stock prices, and slowing growth. But he moved aggressively once he saw the credit problem develop last summer. And new information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals how he has been meeting with leaders in business, finance, and government all along. He has talked with John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco Systems, Sam Palmisano, the head of IBM, JPMorgan’s chief Jamie Dimon, former Senate banking head Phil Gramm, and international central bankers Jean Claude Trichet and Mervyn King. The street was wrong about Bernanke. He’s been on top of the situation. He took remedial action and the economy will be the beneficiary faster than people think.

But this is the part that really caught my eye:

At some point, the entire corporate tax structure should be thrown out, along with all the murky K-Street tax-earmark loopholes that litter the IRS code. We need to broaden the tax base and lower marginal rates. This is the key to maximizing future economic growth on the supply side. Without strong tax-reform measures to expand the production of goods and services, further Fed money injections are only demand-side “solutions” that will surely inflate prices and depreciate the currency.

Back in the 1970s, policymakers in Washington were obsessed with increasing aggregate demand, but they forgot about aggregate supply. Today’s short-term-stimulus rebate package is a throwback to that era. It’s not economic stimulus; it’s political stimulus. Congressmen up for reelection are trying to “do something” in response to primary-season exit polls that say Americans are totally unhappy with the economy. But these rebates are budget busters. And how will Congress attempt to pay down $400 billion in budget deficits? Higher tax rates, of course. And then we’ll really be back in the 1970s.

Kudlow wants fiscal policy to take all the blame for a depreciating currency but surely the Fed at least shares the blame. Of course, Kudlow is right about fiscal policy. The rebates are a waste of money; they won't stimulate the economy and they will add to the deficit and debt.