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  • Biden’s ‘Green’ Infrastructure Plan Would Actually Hurt the Environment, Top Economist Warns

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar “infrastructure” proposal is about a lot more than traditional transportation infrastructure. In some ways, it’s a light version of the Green New Deal, including $10 billion to create a “Civilian Climate Corps,” $20 billion for “racial equity and environmental justice,” $175 billion for electric vehicle subsidies, and even money to make school lunches “greener.”

    But one prominent economist is warning that the supposedly “green” plan would actually backfire and leave the global environment worse off. In a new analysis, Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy argues that the plan would lead to more pollution because it would push economic activity abroad to poorer countries with lower standards.

    “Higher income taxes on top of the many costly labor and environmental mandates in the bill would… raise production costs in the United States,” she writes. “That would shift production of many products to other countries that have more competitive tax rates and lower production costs—but also, oftentimes, questionable environmental standards.”

    In this way, Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar green spending boondoggle could actually lead to higher carbon emissions and more pollution. Moreover, an Ivy League analysis found that this plan would reduce economic growth in the long run—and growth is the key to a clean environment.   

    “Ultimately, we know that the best green policy is the prosperity made possible only by economic growth,” de Rugy concludes. “The wealthier we are, the more we can afford to attend to the environment. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s preferred path of more taxes, and more politically motivated spending and regulations will not just make us financially poorer; it also comes at a high cost for the environment.”

    Like this story? Click here to sign up for the FEE Daily and get free-market news and analysis like this from Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo in your inbox every weekday. 


    Brad Polumbo

    Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education.

    This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.


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  • Jeff Bezos Just Endorsed Corporate Tax Hikes. Here’s Why Amazon’s Support Should Be a Giant Red Flag

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Biden administration and some (but not all) of their Democratic allies in Congress want to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. They say this would help the working class and hurt Big Business, finally making corporations “pay their fair share.” But if that were true, giant corporations like Amazon wouldn’t be endorsing the change. 

    Yet that’s exactly what Jeff Bezos just did. 

    “We support the Biden Administration’s focus on making bold investments in American infrastructure,” the Amazon CEO wrote in a public statement. “We recognize this investment will require concessions from all sides—both on the specifics of what’s included as well as how it gets paid for… we’re supportive of a rise in the corporate tax rate.” (Emphasis mine).

    Amazon has also lobbied aggressively for other big-government policies like a $15 federal minimum wage. At first glance, this might seem like an endorsement of the policies: see, they wouldn’t be so bad for business after all. Yet it’s actually a giant red flag. 

    When Big Business comes together to collude with Big Government, it usually means everyday people are about to get ripped off.

    When CEOs and politicians are able to agree on seemingly anti-business policies, it’s often because they know the government roadblocks instituted will entrench their market dominance and ultimately redound to the C Suite’s benefit. Amazon knows it can weather the storm of higher corporate taxes (right now it pays very little in corporate tax because it exploits tax breaks) but many of its smaller competitors cannot. Meanwhile, Bezos also knows that his company can afford armies of tax experts, accountants, and lawyers to exploit every loophole to minimize the damage; a luxury many less-dominant rivals won’t have.

    And, most importantly, a wealth of economic research shows that workers and consumers really bear the majority of the costs of corporate taxes through lower wages and higher prices. 

    “The elementary fact is that ‘business’ does not and cannot pay taxes,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once explained. “Only people can pay taxes. Corporate officials may sign the check, but the money that they forward to Internal Revenue comes from the corporation’s employees, customers or stockholders.”

    More specifically, a study by the Tax Foundation found that Biden’s proposed corporate tax hike would shrink the overall size of the economy, reduce wages, and eliminate 159,000 jobs. 

    Of course, Bezos would hardly notice a blip in his bank account. The workers left unemployed would have a different experience.

    Amazon is not truly altruistic or “woke.” The company knows that the costs of proposed corporate tax hikes would mostly fall on workers and hurt smaller retail competitors. Amazon just hopes that you don’t know that—and that Americans mistake its cronyism for altruism.


    Brad Polumbo

    Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education.

    This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.


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  • New Stanford Study Suggests Biden’s Agenda Will Have 4 Devastating Economic Consequences

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Sympathetic media outlets have repeatedly asserted that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s tax agenda would only hurt the wealthy. But a new study shows that Biden’s tax and regulatory agenda could seriously hurt the economy overall.

    Four economists from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution analyzed Biden’s proposals to increase taxes, reinstate and expand a host of regulations, and create new subsidies for healthcare and renewable energy. The study concludes that these interventions would distort labor incentives, decrease productivity, and kill jobs.

    As a result, the experts project that the policy agenda would, by 2030, lead to 4.9 million fewer jobs and the economy shrinking by $2.6 trillion. So, too, the study projects that consumption would be $1.5 trillion lower in 2030 and families would see a $6,500 drop in median household income compared to a neutral scenario.

    “The risk from Joe Biden’s policies isn’t that they will send the economy reeling right away,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board concluded in its analysis of the study. “The problem is that they will have a long-term corrosive impact by raising the cost of capital, reducing the incentive to work and invest, and reducing productivity across the economy. Americans will pay the price in a lower standard of living than they otherwise would—and that they deserve.”

    It’s crucial to understand not just what Biden’s government-heavy agenda would do to the economy, but why.

    Tax hikes hurt the economy because they reduce incentives to work and produce.

    “Taxing profits is tantamount to taxing success,” famed free-market economist Ludwig Von Mises once wrote. “Progressive taxation of income and profits means that precisely those parts of the income which people would have saved and invested are taxed away.”

    Biden has promised to raise the corporate tax to 28 percent. Higher corporate taxes means less money available for investment, expansion, and new hiring—“taxing success,” as Mises wisely dubbed it. This means fewer jobs and lower wages for workers, as well as fewer offerings (especially of innovative new products) and lower quality for consumers.

    This is why, while corporate tax hikes might sound like something that would just hurt “Big Business,” in reality, the costs would be passed on to consumers and workers. According to the Tax Foundation, “studies appear to show that labor bears between 50 percent and 100 percent of the burden of the corporate income tax, with 70 percent or higher the most likely outcome.”

    Considering this, it should come as little surprise to see economists projecting negative economic consequences as a result of Biden’s hefty tax hikes.

    As far as heavy-handed regulations are concerned, they create a drag on the economy by imposing additional costs and stifling innovation. The more red tape and hoops companies and entrepreneurs have to jump through and comply with, the less likely they are to discover new ideas and make breakthroughs. So, too, the more regulated an industry, the harder it is for start-ups to take on the big established companies that can better weather the costs of regulation.

    Reducing competition means reduced innovation and more complacency.

    Yet the real takeaway from this Stanford study is not about any one candidate, policy, or party. It’s another reminder that free markets and economic liberty drive prosperity—but heavy-handed government interventions hurt more than they help.

    Brad Polumbo


    Brad Polumbo

    Brad Polumbo is a libertarian-conservative journalist and the Eugene S. Thorpe Writing Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education.

    This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.


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