Stephen Moore
Columns by Stephen Moore
Is America running out of workers?
If you want one number that encapsulates the enormity of the economic turnaround under Donald Trump it is this: Today in America so far this year there have been between 7.1 million and 7.6 million unfilled jobs. This number is larger than the entire population of the state of Indiana. That is how powerful and relentless the hiring spree has been under Trump policies. Published April 14, 2019
Holding commodity prices stable will help to avoid economic carnage
What caused the financial crisis and Great Recession of 20082009? A decade later, economists still don't have a good answer. Of course, the financial bubble in the housing market was the proximate cause, but this begs the question of what inflated the bubble that burst in the first place. Published April 7, 2019
Elite universities sit on massive tax deducible endowments, and could be tapped to lower costs
The seething anger that Americans feel over the college admissions scandal with wealthy and well-connected families using money, influence and cheating to bump their kids up in line so they get accepted into elite schools is well-justified. Yet this scheme is small potatoes compared to the real scandal on college campuses from coast to coast. That scam is how much universities are charging families once they do get in. Published March 31, 2019
The avalanche of green dollars in Barack Obama’s first term was a colossal waste of money
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal has been widely ridiculed for its massive disruption to the economy and a price tag of tens of trillions of dollars. Published March 24, 2019
The Democrats’ $100 trillion agenda could easily tilt the nation toward bankruptcy
Remember when Democrats complained that $5.7 billion for a border wall was too expensive? Well, that's chump change compared to what many of the congressional Democrats and nearly all of those 15 declared Democrats in the presidential race are now rallying behind. Published March 17, 2019
The Trump administration rallies behind car tariffs, but the car industry opposes them
In almost every case, whenever a tariff or quota is imposed on imports that tax is strongly supported by the domestic industry getting the protective shield from lower-priced foreign competition. The sugar industry supports sugar tariffs; textile mills lobby for tariffs on foreign clothing. The steel industry and the aluminum makers are getting rich off of the high taxes on imported metals. Published March 10, 2019
Why Trump must veto the federal land grab bill
President Trump gave one of his most memorable and impactful speeches two weeks ago when he systematically dismantled the case for socialism. In that speech, he recalled the economic harm and destruction in nations that have adopted socialism, communism or Stalinism. "We will never be a socialist country," Mr. Trump pledged in his speech in Florida. Published March 3, 2019
Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York are careening off a progressive cliff
"This is the flip side (of) tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich. The rich leave, and now what do you do?" — Andrew M. Cuomo, N.Y. governor (2/4/19) Published February 24, 2019
Pro-trade Democrats go missing with Trump’s creation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement
Does anyone know where all those free trade Democrats went? Published February 17, 2019
The Green New Deal would weaken the United States
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, has released her Green New Deal plan to the nation — and to great applause from the Democratic Party. Published February 10, 2019
‘Democrats for border security?’
The government shutdown is over — for now — but the political ramifications are still being sorted out. The media has been chortling that Donald Trump "caved," and he may well have lost this battle with congressional Democrats. Their "victory," such as it is, is to notify American voters that they are so opposed to a wall and a secure border that they were willing to keep the government shut down for four weeks to ensure it doesn't happen. Published January 27, 2019
Navigating the Nancy Pelosi shutdown
On Saturday President Trump shrewdly flipped the table on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the government shutdown standoff. Published January 20, 2019
Democratic commitment to raising taxes punishes the rich, fails to help the poor
Oh how far the Democratic Party has fallen. In recent days we've seen the new darling of the Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, crusading for a 70 percent income tax rate. Published January 13, 2019
Can red state and blue state America coexist?
In the months after the election of Donald Trump, there was a mini-political movement in California to get the Golden State to secede from the Union. Published January 6, 2019
2018, the year of the worker
If 2017 was the year of the investor with stock market gains of more than 25 percent during President Trump's first year in office, 2018 was undoubtedly the year of the American worker. Published December 30, 2018
The Federal Reserve’s logic for raising interest rates is flawed
In one of the most remarkable Abbott and Costello routines in modern times, the economic wizards at the Fed again raised interest rates on Tuesday. Their cracker jack logic for doing so is to steer America on a course toward recession so they have the tools in hand to end the recession that they themselves created. Can anyone tell us who's on first? Published December 23, 2018
Follow the (climate change) money
The first iron rule of American politics is: Follow the money. This explains, oh, about 80 percent of what goes on in Washington. Published December 16, 2018
The Bush tax betrayal
The eulogies for George H.W. Bush keep rolling in and a great American hero's life has been given proper tribute. Published December 9, 2018
Why Donald Trump must declare war on government waste
Republicans need to regain the offensive on the fiscal issues. The GOP has somehow allowed big spending Democrats to get to the right of them on the issue of financial responsibility and balanced budgets. Published December 2, 2018
Some thought Trump would wreck the economy, but 4 percent growth proves them wrong
There's an old saying that Wall Street economists have predicted eight of the last two recessions. The bears in the economics profession keep getting paid a lot of money misreading the nation's economic weather vanes — whether it was the power and durability of the Reagan expansion in the 1980s, the ferocious bull market of the late 1990s, the after-effects of the 9/11 attacks, or most recently the phenomenal revival of growth in President Trump's first years in office. Published November 25, 2018
