December 13, 2017 — Evidently House and Senate Republicans today agreed on a tax bill. It is really awful. If you want to understand why economists are confident that the tax cuts will not pay for themselves and why Republicans are disingenuous to claim otherwise, I recommend what Jason Furman and Larry Summers have been writing, e.g., in this column in the Washington Post.
The angle I have focused on over the last two weeks is the light shed on the tax plan by the historical precedents of several decades. Here is a Table of Contents, with links for potential watching, listening or reading.