Trump Can Stimulate Economy Without “Blowing Up” The Deficit: Ben Bernanke
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday discussed what fiscal proposals can help stimulate the economy, without greatly impacting the U.S. debt.
“Of the various fiscal proposals, the two that have the most potential for supply side growth…one would be tax reform on the corporate side, make that more efficient and try to promote more capital investment. And the second would be smart infrastructure investment, make us more productive,” he said during an interview on Wall Street Week.
Bernanke believes the Trump administration can successfully reform the corporate tax code and invest in infrastructure spending without “blowing up” the U.S. deficit.
“The higher priority would be to reform the corporate tax code, make it more efficient -- that can be done with moderate increases in deficit,” said Bernanke. “Infrastructure spending…if you do good maintenance today, you don’t have to do that maintenance tomorrow. If you make the economy more productive that increases your tax revenues.”