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Julian Morris Discusses European Bailout Fever on Fox Business

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Foundation’s Vice President of Research Julian Morris appeared on Cavuto to discuss increasing market turmoil in Europe and America and how bailouts and spending doesn't heal an economic crisis caused by bailouts and spending. Air Date: July 23, 2012.

Approximately 6.37 minutes.

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Anthony Randazzo Talks Greece, Spain, and Euro Dissolution on The Alyona Show

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Foundation Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo appeared on The Alyona Show to discuss whether the Eurozone is on the brink of dissolution after a weekend of a narrow election victory in Greece and increasing bond yields in Spain. Air Date: June 18, 2012.

Approximately 9.22 minutes.

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Matt Welch Discusses Another European Bank Bailout on Fox Business

Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Editor in Chief, Matt Welch appeared on Fox Business to discuss the another bank bailout in the works for Europeans and whether the EU will be prepared for a Greek exit. Air date: May 20, 2012.

Approximately 2.46 minutes.

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Wende Museum: An Archive of the Cold War

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST

"The fall of the (Berlin) Wall only occurred 20 years ago. It's very recent, but it's very important, perhaps one of the most important historical events of our age," says Justinian Jampol, the founder and Executive Director of the Los Angeles-based Wende Museum.

The Wende's mission is to preserve Cold War artifacts and personal histories from the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain, with a special emphasis on the former East Germany. Many of the materials that make up the museum's collection come from former Stasi secret police agents, Berlin Wall border guards, and members of the other Eastern European and Soviet communist regimes that would have otherwise been lost to history.

Jampol describes one of the museum's treasures: the Berlin Wall border guards' log books from the day the Wall fell. These books demonstrate the devotion some guards had for defending the Wall, both as an idea and a physical presence, as they continued to detail the thousands of "illegal border crossings" that took place after the Wall had already fallen.

The museum is also behind the "Wall on Wilshire Project," where 10 pieces of the monstrous Berlin Wall were flown to LA, reconstructed along a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard and painted over by street artists to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

Approximately 4.25 minutes. Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Shot by Sharif Matar.

Music: "Warzaw Express" by Pharaos

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Will More Taxpayer Money Solve the Debt Crisis? Anthony Randazzo on Freedom Watch

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Reason's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo joined a panel on Freedom Watch to discuss a recent shift in policy as the Treasure Department begins to resist funding the ECB to bailout European debt. The panel also discuss the politics behind the debt ceiling in America. Air Date: January 25, 2011.

Approximately 6.27 minutes.

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Occupy Wall Street, Obamacare, & Bailouts - Peter Schiff on Huckabee

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Peter Schiff joins European Parliament Member Daniel Hannan on Huckabee to discuss how increasing government regulation, oversight, and taxes has set back America's economy and created the Occupy Wall Street movenment. Air Date: October 28, 2011.

About 15 minutes.

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Economist Murat Yulek on Greek Debt, Turkish Growth, & U.S. Budget Woes

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

How bad is the Greek debt crisis? How will the U.S.'s inability to get its fiscal house in order impact rising countries such as Turkey? Economist Murat Yülek hails from Turkey and is a former Georgetown University professor and finance company CEO, who's worked with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank.

In early July, Yülek sat down with Reason Foundation's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo to discuss how the Greek and American situations may just make it harder for countries such as Turkey to fully liberalize their economies.

Approximately 5.08 minutes.

Shot by Joshua Swain and Jack Gillespie. Edited by Swain.

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Anthony Randazzo Discusses Greece Riots, US Debt and China's Growing Economy on The Alyona Show

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Foundation's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo discusses Greece's ongoing debt problems on Europe's economy, whether China will become the major lender in the world, and likely scenarios to U.S.'s unresolved budget crisis on Russia Today's "The Alyona Show". Airdate: June 28, 2011.

About 10 minutes.

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Veronique de Rugy: The Facts About the Corporate Income Tax

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Editor’s Note: Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy appears weekly on Bloomberg TV to separate economic fact from economic myth.

Myth 1: We can collect more revenue by raising the tax rate on corporations or by increasing the top bracket.

Fact 1: The wealth of the economy is a much better indicator of corporate tax revenue than tax rates and tax brackets.

This chart shows the corporate tax collection as a share of the economy side by side with the top marginal corporate rate since 1981. During that time, the U.S. corporate tax rate has been as high as 46 percent and has gone down to 34 percent. Since 1993, the top rate has been 35 percent. The level of income covered by the top tax bracket has varied a lot too: from $100,000 in 1981 to $1.4 million in 1984, down to $335,000 in 1987 and up again to $18 million since 1993 (all dollar amounts in nominal terms).

This chart makes clear that the general state of the economy is a much better indicator of the tax collection than rate levels and the top bracket. It is particularly visible since 1993, since the rate and top bracket haven’t changed and yet tax collection varied a great deal, falling during recessions and rising during recoveries.

Myth 2: Corporations pay the corporate income tax.

Fact 2: First, corporations do not pay taxes, only individuals pay taxes. More importantly, economists have shown that a majority of the corporate income tax is borne by labor mainly in the form of lower wages rather than borne by shareholders.

This chart (overly simplified for the Bloomberg discussion) is based on academic work done by Aparna Mathur and Kevin Hassett in December 2010 and shows the link between corporate tax rates and the average manufacturing wage (in U.S. dollars) for 65 countries between 1981 and 2005. It shows a negative link between tax rates and wages, suggesting that higher corporate tax rates lead to lower worker wages. Mathur and Hassett test this point by using regressions controlling for other factors. They find that a 1 percent increase in the corporate income tax leads to almost a 0.5-0.6 percent decrease in hourly wages.

Interestingly, a chart from their original 2006 paper shows that when the sample of countries is restricted to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, the negative slope is much more pronounced. That implies that higher corporate taxes have a stronger negative impact on wages in developed economies.

This is consistent with a growing body of work [see Arulampalam et al. (2007), Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley, and James R. Hines (2007), and Felix (2007)] that analyzes actual payroll data to see who in fact is bearing the corporate income tax. Such work finds a large impact of corporate income tax on labor—as high at 200 percent. The theoretical studies that followed found a lower but still large impact on wages from the corporate income tax. These studies show that from 45 to 75 percent of the cost of the corporate tax is borne by labor rather than shareholders, as has long been believed.

Here is the Congressional Budget Office’s William Randolph (2006) for instance:

Burdens are measured in a numerical example by substituting factor shares and output shares that are reasonable for the U.S. economy. Given those values, domestic labor bears slightly more than 70 percent of the burden of the corporate income tax. The domestic owners of capital bear slightly more than 30 percent of the burden. Domestic landowners receive a small benefit. At the same time, the foreign owners of capital bear slightly more than 70 percent of the burden, but their burden is exactly offset by the benefits received by foreign workers and landowners.

Myth 3: The United States is a friendly country for businesses.

Fact 3: Not really. While there is good access to capital, the U.S. has the top corporate income tax rate among OECD nations and a worldwide tax system.

In 2010, the top national corporate tax rates among the 31 members of the OECD ranged from 8.5 percent in Switzerland to 35 percent in the United States. Hence, within the OECD countries, the United States has the highest statutory tax rate at the national level. The picture changes only slightly when we add subnational or state-level corporate tax rates to the national rate. In the United States, the average top statutory rate imposed by states in 2010 added a bit over 4 percent (after accounting for the fact that state taxes are deducted from federal taxable income) for a combined top statutory rate of 39.2 percent. Among all OECD countries in 2010, the United States had the second-highest top statutory combined corporate tax rate, after Japan’s rate of 39.5 percent.

Interestingly, the U.S. corporate income tax raises little revenue compared with other taxes and this share has decreased over the years. It's not surprising, then, that the U.S. raises less revenue from the corporate tax than the OECD average. Corporations, like individuals, can and do use tax breaks to lower their tax burdens and, as a result, the effective tax rate is lower than the top rate.

However, these breaks shouldn’t be looked at independently of the corporate tax system. As it turns out, the U.S. not only imposes high rates, it also taxes corporations on a worldwide basis. So, for example, profits made by an American-owned computer plant are subject to U.S. taxes whether the plant is located in Texas or Ireland. Most major countries don’t tax foreign business income. In fact, about half of OECD nations have “territorial” systems that tax firms only on their domestic income.

As I explained a few years ago in Reason magazine, the combination of high rates, the worldwide tax system, and a competitive global marketplace makes the U.S. corporate tax system more punishing than it seems even on first glance.

Contributing Editor Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Slashing Spending in Post-Soviet Slovakia

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EST

Since the end of communism in 1989, Slovakia has experienced rapid economic growth by privatizing industries and liberating its markets, allowing its citizens to enjoy the same standard of living as their Western European neighbors. However, government spending is still out of control.

Richard Durana, director of the Slovakia Institute for Economic and Social Studies and the project The Price of the State, sat down with Reason.tv to explain how his group is working to educate Slovaks that many services currently provided by the government could be delivered more efficiently by the private sector.

Approximately 5.03 minutes.

Interviewed by June Arunga. Camera by Jim Epstein and Josh Swain. Editing by Swain.

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Michael Moynihan Discusses the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism in Europe on Russia Today

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Magazine and Reason.com Senior Editor Michael Moynihan appears on Russia Today's The Alyona Show to discuss the rise of extreme right-wing parties in Europe and how they differ from the tea party movement in America. Airdate: October 20, 2010.

Approximately 6.22.

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Anthony Randazzo on RT's Alyona Show Talks about the Euro's Troubles

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:10:00 EDT

Reason Foundation's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo discusses the rising pressures on the Euro from the Greek debt crisis and more on Russia Today's "The Alyona Show" on May 7, 2010.

Approximately 5 minutes.

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Adrian Moore on C-SPAN Discussing Economic Instablity of U.S. and Europe

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT

On May 10, 2010, Vice President of Research at Reason Foundation Adrian Moore appeared on C-SPAN's Washington Journal to talk about California and Greece's deficit and economic instablity.

Approximately 44 minutes.

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Adrian Moore Discusses Greece and California's Budget Woes on Fox Business' Varney & Co.

Tue, 11 May 2010 16:00:00 EDT

Adrian Moore, vice president of research at the Reason Foundation, discusses the economic collapse in Greece and how it may be similar to the deficit problems in California with Varney & Co. on the Fox Business Network on May 5, 2010.

Approximately 4 minutes.

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Anthony Randazzo on RT's The Alyona Show Discusses Greek Debt

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EDT

The Reason Foundation's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo discusses the Greek debt crisis and the similarities to the situation in California, on Russia Today's "The Alyona Show" on March 9, 2010.

Approximately 7.32 minutes.

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Don't Break What's Working in Health Care

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST

When it comes to health insurance reform, California State University, Northridge economist Glen Whitman emphasizes, "We have to make sure we don't just fix the parts that are broken. We also have to make sure we don't actually break the parts that are working very well. And it turns out that one of the areas that America is really great at is innovation."

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Whitman to discuss his new Cato Institute policy analysis, coauthored with Raymond Raad, "Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation."

Whether it's Nobel laureates in medical fields or the most important recent medical innovations, Whitman and Raad find that the U.S. has contributed more than any other nation, and in some cases, more than all nations combined. Whitman cites some key factors that account for America's innovative ways, and warns that if America adopts a more centrally planned health system we may not only innovate less but we might not know what innovations we're missing.

Interview shot by Alex Manning and Hawk Jensen; it was edited by Manning. Approximately 10 minutes.

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Related video: "Would ObamaCare Kill Medical Innovation?"

Obama's French Toast: Just Say Non

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:50:00 EDT

Download MP4 Version

By all accounts (including his own), President Barack Obama had a great time during his recent trip to France. And elite opinion at places ranging from Newsweek to The Economist to the Brookings Institution is urging Obama to make America more like France and Europe.

Should the United States become the next France, a land of high taxes, regulation, and government spending? And, not uncoincidentally, comparatively low economic growth?

In "Obama's French Toast: Just Say Non," Sorbonne-trained economist Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University argues that embracing the French way would be nothing less than a train wreck, leaving Americans with fewer jobs and less disposable income.

"Obama's French Toast" is a co-production of Reason.tv and the Center for Freedom & Prosperity.

Written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie. Approximately three minutes long.