If Obama Had Listened To Steve Forbes? (Minnesota, economy, money)

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Moneynews - Steve Forbes: Stimulus Lacks Strategy


News for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa



Where would the economy be had Barack listened to Steve Forbes?

[saganista]

It's hard to tell. There are no data out there for people having ever listened to Steve Forbes...

[Motion]

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The subject was the flat tax, which Mr. Forbes never succeeded in selling in the United States. Here in the polar reaches of Europe it is an article of faith. Estonia became the first country to adopt it in 1994, as part of a broader strategy to transform itself from an obscure Soviet republic into a plugged-in member of the global information economy.

By all accounts, the plan is working. Estonia's economic growth was nearly 11 percent in the last quarter - the second fastest in Europe, after Latvia, and an increase more reminiscent of China or India than Germany or France.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/in...tter.html?_r=1

[saganista]

Estonia is one of several tiny eastern european economies to experiment with a flat tax. They have next to no wealthy people anyway, so it doesn't much matter. A flat tax is cheap, and once it's set up, it's reliable. Didn't prevent their economy from collapsing in 2008, though...