Clark Center Forum

About the Clark Center Forum

The Forum for the Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets is home to the European, Finance, and US Economic Experts Panels as well as a repository of thoughtful, current, and reliable information regarding topics of the day.
US

Charitable Deductions

Reducing the income-tax deductibility of charitable gifts is a less distortionary way to raise new revenue than raising the same amount of revenue through a proportional increase in all marginal tax rates.

Responses

© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
11%
0%
0%
11%
18%
50%
11%
 
US

Bitcoin

A bitcoin's value derives solely from the belief that others will want to use it for trade, which implies that its purchasing power is likely to fluctuate over time to a degree that will limit its usefulness.

Responses

© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
3%
5%
0%
5%
8%
61%
18%
 
US

Trade Deals

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Refusing to liberalize trade unless partner countries adopt new labor or environmental rules is a bad policy, because even if the new standards would reduce distortions on some dimensions, such a policy involves threatening to maintain large distortions in the form of restricted trade. 
US

Minimum Wage

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A: Raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour would make it noticeably harder for low-skilled workers to find employment.

B: The distortionary costs of raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour and indexing it to inflation are sufficiently small compared with the benefits to low-skilled workers who can find employment that this would be a desirable policy. 

Topics

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