When I was in graduate school, I became friendly with the grand economist James Tobin. When Newt Gingrich's Republicans took over Congress, Jim and I published op-eds in the Los Angeles Times and some other papers criticizing what became the 1996 welfare reform. We cited the available research, which suggested that proposed measures were too harsh, and that welfare reform would not do what its supporters said it would.
I'm proud to have written those essays. Many of these proposed...
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