, Columnist
Supply-Siders Still Push What Doesn't Work
The old recipe of tax cuts, deregulation and fiscal austerity does little for growth.
It was right then, not now.
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The case for supply-side economics is by now so familiar that it’s almost a catechism. First, the supply-siders will point out that economic growth is slow. They’ll remind us how much better things were in the 1980s (and, occasionally, the 1990s). Then they’ll recommend growth be increased through a mix of tax cuts, deregulation and fiscal austerity. Usually, the policies they suggest will happen to coincide with whatever Republicans in Congress or the presidency are currently proposing.
A recent essay by John Cogan, Glenn Hubbard, John Taylor and Kevin Warsh sticks very closely to this standard script. The authors, who are all affiliated with the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, assert that: