Top Marginal Tax Rate

I know, clickbait headline. Some interesting charts from Brad DeLong. It would appear that reducing the top marginal tax rate increases income inequality.  Go figure.

This one is just interesting for historical reasons. Michael Dell (of Dell computers) was asked about a 70% top marginal tax rate at Davos a day or two ago and said, “where has that ever worked?”. The interviewer, to his credit, said “the United States?”. People forget that we had a 90% top rate during the extremely strong 50’s.