The End of Prosperity?

I had a chance to visit with Wall Street Journal Editorial Board member and senior economics writer Stephen Moore at a local forum on Friday.

Moore, a frequent guest on CNBC's Kudlow & Company and The Glenn Beck Program, is the author, along with Dr. Arthur Laffer and Peter J. Tanous, of the new book The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom The Economy If We Let It Happen.

Moore left no stone unturned in his economic commentary, complete with charts and graphs, detailing how a high tax and anti-growth environment will lead this country to unnecessary economic hardship. Unfortunately, this is the rhetoric put forth by President-elect Barack Obama. We can all only hope that the incoming administration, given the turmoil our economy is in, will at a minimum pause on some of the tax policies they campaigned on.

The conference was over before news of the selection of New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary became public. Geithner is a free trade guy, with international experience who has been working closely with the FED in the recent rescue efforts that have taken place during the current economic cirsis. At the end of the day I think this is a good decision by The Obama transition team, one that could provide stability and perhaps curtail much of the uncertainty gripping the markets.

In his comments in Orlando, Moore indicated that he thought the Treasury Secretary would be the most important figure going forward for the next two years or so. Moore was back from the forum in time to join Larry Kudlow on CNBC Reports Kudlow & Company for a round table with Jared Bernstein, Robert Reich and Jimmy Pethokoukis on the markets, the potential implosion of Citigroup and the nomination of Geithner.