Word: feldstein
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...supposed to make America's goods cheaper in comparison with foreign alternatives, thereby throttling back the country's imports and spurring its exports. That in turn should have curbed the record U.S. trade deficit ($148.5 billion last year), which has crippled many American industries and produced what Martin Feldstein, a Harvard professor and former chief economic adviser to President Reagan, calls "slow and twisted" growth...
...Feldstein termed the House measure "simply awful. It's full of nonsense; it's mischievous." However, he also felt the legislation was little more than a tactical ploy designed to give House Democrats a campaign issue in November's congressional elections. Feldstein predicted that any legislation that emerged from the Senate would be much milder. Nonetheless, he warned, "if the economy were to become very weak, it may become a real piece of legislation...
...economists differed somewhat, though, on the issue of how soon the deficit must be cut substantially. "This is the make-or-break year for the deficit," contended Rivlin. "There is a general perception that there is a breakdown in our system and we can't solve this problem." Feldstein, however, thinks that considerable progress has already been made. Said he: "If the deficit problem drags on for another year, it's not the end of the earth...
Many legislators and economists maintain that Congress and the Administration will have to boost taxes in order to keep the 1987 deficit to the $144 billion mark that Gramm-Rudman requires. Board Member Feldstein thinks that taxes will eventually have to be raised, but that the Administration will not go along with an increase until after the 1986 congressional elections, "when the magnitude of the problem will be clearer...
...Congress will modify Gramm-Rudman to putit into a form that passes. The cuts will be aboutthe same," Feldstein said...