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{{short description|American journalist, conservative commentator, and political economist}}
'''Jude Thaddeus Wanniski''' (June 17, 1936 – August 29, 2005) was an American [[journalism|journalist]], conservative commentator
▲'''Jude Thaddeus Wanniski''' (June 17, 1936 – August 29, 2005) was an American [[journalism|journalist]], conservative commentator, [[Nation of Islam]] supporter, and political economist.
Wanniski was born in [[Pottsville, Pennsylvania]], the son of Constance, who worked at an accounting firm, and Michael Wanniski, an itinerant butcher.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailyrecord/access/1772850541.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+08%2C+2006&author=&pub=Daily+Record&desc=Constance+Wanniski&pqatl=google | work=Daily Record | title=Constance Wanniski | date=February 8, 2006 | access-date=July 6, 2017 | archive-date=January 6, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106034639/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailyrecord/doc/439305295.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb%2008,%202006&author=&pub=Daily%20Record&edition=&startpage=&desc=Constance%20Wanniski | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E1DE1731F932A0575BC0A9639C8B63 | work=The New York Times | title=Paid Notice: Deaths WANNISKI, JUDE T | date=August 31, 2005}}</ref> His father was of Polish descent and his mother was a Scottish immigrant.<ref>
▲== Early life and education ==
▲Wanniski was born in [[Pottsville, Pennsylvania]], the son of Constance, who worked at an accounting firm, and Michael Wanniski, an itinerant butcher.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailyrecord/access/1772850541.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+08%2C+2006&author=&pub=Daily+Record&desc=Constance+Wanniski&pqatl=google | work=Daily Record | title=Constance Wanniski | date=February 8, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E1DE1731F932A0575BC0A9639C8B63 | work=The New York Times | title=Paid Notice: Deaths WANNISKI, JUDE T | date=August 31, 2005}}</ref> His father was of Polish descent and his mother was a Scottish immigrant.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160225000605/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-117833659.html] </ref> When he was still very young, his family moved to Brooklyn, where his father became a book binder.<ref name="Provocative"/> His grandfather was a Pennsylvania coal miner and a dedicated Communist who gave his grandson a copy of ''Das Kapital'' for his high school graduation.<ref name="Coined"/>
==Career==
After college, Wanniski worked as a reporter and columnist in Alaska.<ref name="Provocative" /> From 1961 to 1965 he worked at ''The [[Las Vegas Review-Journal]]'' as a political columnist,<ref name="Coined" /> where he taught himself economics
In 1965, Wanniski moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], to work as a columnist for the ''[[National Observer (United States)|National Observer]]'', published by Dow Jones.<ref name="Provocative" />
From 1972 to 1978, Wanniski was the [[associate editor]] of ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''. He left after being discovered at a New Jersey train station distributing leaflets supporting a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States Senate|senatorial]] candidate, an act considered an ethics violation.<ref name="Provocative" /><ref name="Last" />
In 1978, Wanniski started Polyconomics, an economics forecasting firm, where he and his analysts advised corporations, investment banks and others.<ref name="Coined">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/business/31wanniski.html?ex=1283140800&en=9b18b36a7ca3d605&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |work=New York Times |title=Jude Wanniski, 69, Journalist Who Coined the Term 'Supply-Side Economics' |author=Douglas Martin |date=August 31, 2005}}</ref>
He also began directly advising politicians on economic policy, first candidate [[Ronald Reagan]] and later presidential hopefuls [[Jack Kemp]] and [[Steve Forbes]].<ref name="Provocative" /> He helped design the tax cuts made during Reagan's first term in office. His formal role as a Reagan adviser ended after an interview he gave to the ''[[Village Voice]]'' was published under the headline "The Battle for Reagan's Mind."<ref name="Provocative" />
In the late 1990s, Wanniski developed a friendship with the controversial leader of the [[Nation of Islam]], [[Louis Farrakhan]], stating in 1997: "My wife Patricia and I spent the four-day July 4th weekend in [[Chicago]] at the International Islamic Conference, hosted by the Nation of Islam, in conjunction with the World Islamic Peoples Leadership. It may have been the single most important political event I have witnessed in my life. ... What made the event so important was that when the weekend began, Farrakhan was the spiritual leader of 200,000 members of the Nation of Islam and clearly the most influential of 33 million African-
Polyconomics as a corporation ceased operations on June 30, 2006, ten months after Wanniski's death, but the name (a combination of "politics" and "economics") lives on at The Polyconomics Institute, where one can find the Wanniski's collected works for Polyconomics, as well as correspondence with economic policy makers, and lectures.<ref name=polyconomics.com>{{
==Economic and political beliefs==
Wanniski consistently advocated the reduction of trade barriers, the elimination of capital gains taxes, and a return to the [[gold standard]].<ref name="tnr">{{
===Lower taxes===
Wanniski was instrumental in popularizing the ideas of lower tax rates embodied in the "[[Laffer Curve]]" and was present in 1974 when [[Arthur Laffer]] drew the curve on the famous napkin for [[Dick Cheney]] and [[Donald Rumsfeld]].<ref name="Provocative"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.polyconomics.com/gallery/Napkin003.jpg|format=JPG|title= Napkin image|publisher=Polyconomics.com|
A simplified view of the theory is that tax revenues would be zero if tax rates were either 0% or 100% and somewhere in between 0% and 100% is a tax rate that maximizes total revenue. Laffer's postulate was that the tax rate that maximizes revenue was at a much lower level than previously believed, so low that current tax rates were above the level for revenue to be maximized.
Many economists were skeptical that it was true in practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRgQ2goeFzwC&q=%22laffer+curve%22&pg=PA171|title=Principles of Economics|isbn=978-0324589979|last1=Gregory Mankiw|first1=N.|date=29 September 2008|publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref> Wanniski suggested that the United States was on the wrong side of the Laffer curve.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shiller|first=Robert J.|title=Narrative Economics|date=2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-18997-0|location=Princeton|pages=45|doi=10.1515/9780691189970|s2cid=242898150|quote=Wanniski suggested, without any data, that we were on the inefficient side of the Laffer curve.}}</ref>
===The Two Santa Claus Theory===
The '''Two Santa Claus Theory''' is a political theory and strategy published by Wanniski in 1976, which he promoted within the [[United States]]
According to Wanniski, the theory is simple. In 1976, he wrote that the Two-Santa Claus Theory suggests that "the Republicans should concentrate on tax-rate reduction. As they succeed in expanding incentives to produce, they will move the economy back to full employment and thereby reduce social pressures for public spending. Just as an increase in Government spending inevitably means taxes must be raised, a cut in tax rates—by expanding the private sector—will diminish the relative size of the public sector."<ref name="bartlett" /> Wanniski suggested this position, as left-liberal observer [[Thom Hartmann]] has clarified, so that the Democrats would "have to be anti-Santas by raising taxes, or anti-Santas by cutting spending. Either one would lose them elections."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0 |title=Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community |publisher=Common Dreams |date=2009-01-26 |
===''The Way the World Works''===
Wanniski's 1978 book, ''The Way
===Iraq===
Wanniski is also notable for his journalism on the alleged [[Weapon of mass destruction|weapons of mass destruction]] (WMD) in [[Iraq]]. As early as 1997, Wanniski posted columns on his website alleging that after November 1991, inspectors of [[United Nations Special Commission|UNSCOM]]
He became a somewhat controversial figure in the conservative movement at the beginning of 2003, when he vocally opposed the impending [[2003 invasion of Iraq|US war with Iraq]]. On October 27, 2004, he publicly denounced [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]], saying, "Mr. Bush has become an [[Imperialism|imperialist]]—one whose decisions as commander-in-chief have made the world a more dangerous place." Eventually Wanniski endorsed the 2004
Wanniski's last published work was an article for the 2005 [[IHS Press]] antiwar anthology, ''[[Neo-Conned!]]''
==Influence==
Wanniski has been credited with coining the term [[supply-side economics]] to distinguish it against the more dominant "demand-side" [[Keynesian economics|Keynesian]] and [[monetarism|monetarist]] theories.<ref name="Coined"/>
The rising GOP star [[Jack Kemp]] became a supply-side economics advocate due to Wanniski's tutelage, and would work to put his proposals into legislative practice.{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}
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''The Way the World Works'' was named one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century by ''[[National Review]]'' magazine.<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/100best/100_books.html ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723021220/http://www.nationalreview.com/100best/100_books.html |date=July 23, 2008 }}</ref> Conservative commentator [[Robert D. Novak]] said, in the introduction to the 20th anniversary edition (1998) of the book, that it was one of two books that "shaped [Novak's] mature philosophy of politics and government." ([[Whittaker Chambers]]' ''Witness'' is the other.)
Starting in 1987, Wanniski edited an annual "Media Guide" in which he rated pundits on a four-star scale. Some conservatives, such as [[George F. Will]] and [[Norman Podhoretz]], received only a single star.<ref name="Provocative"/>
In 1998, Wanniski attempted to foster dialogue between
==Death==
Wanniski died of a heart attack on August 29, 2005, in [[Morristown, New Jersey]], while working at his desk. He was survived by his wife, Patricia, and children Matthew, Andrew,
At the time of his death, Wanniski was at the low point of his political influence, according to longtime friend
==See also==
* [[Macroeconomics]]
* [[Political economy]]
* [[Perspectives on
* [[List of economics topics]]
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* [http://www.polyconomics.com/ssu.html Supply-Side University]
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=openmind_ep1476|description="The Open Mind – A Gourmet Guide to the News (1988)"}}
* {{C-SPAN|
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:American economics writers]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:American
[[Category:American people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:American political consultants]]
[[Category:People from Pottsville, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey Republicans]]
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[[Category:Supply-side economists]]
[[Category:Journalists from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
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