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Kimberly Clausing

@kclausing.bsky.social
12K followers 259 following 333 posts

Economist; Professor @law.ucla.edu; senior fellow @piie.com; former tax DAS at Treasury; Author, Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital

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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
IZA@LISER @iza.org · 28/09/2026
🌍 Restricting international #STEM students would cost the U.S. economy billions 🆕IZA Discussion Paper by @mclem.org, J. Neufeld & A. Nice examines what would happen if policy changes restricted the # of intl. STEM graduates transitioning into the U.S. workforce. 🔗 www.iza.org/publications... 1/2
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Happy to be a part of this effort. These forced labor tariffs make no sense unless they are understood for what they are: a clear attempt to take authority that belongs to Congress. The tariffs bear no relation to possible underlying harms; they merely create a distortionary and regressive tax.
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Catherine Wolfram @cwolfram.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets has a website! #occcm occcm.org
occcm.org
Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets
The Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets brings together countries or jurisdictions that have decided to move forward together in the decarbonization of the global economy. The initiative aims ...
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
AEA Journals @aeajournals.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Very little of America’s post–World War II debt burden was reduced through economic growth alone, say researchers at the IMF and @jhuartssciences.bsky.social. They argue that interest rate distortions played a significant role. #econsky www.aeaweb.org/research/wwi...
aeaweb.org
The US debt-to-GDP ratio since 1946
A reexamination of how America shed its post-World War II debt.
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Cullen Hendrix @cullenhendrix.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The great irony of contemporary US politics: you're already getting socialism—and the Democratic Socialists have nothing to do with it. My latest for @piie.com.
piie.com
You're already getting socialism—and Democratic Socialists have nothing to do with it
The election of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the surprising performance of Democratic Socialist or DSA-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the United States is reviving interest in ...
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In 1937, Stalin's census found the famine killed millions.⁣ ⁣ His government suppressed the report and shot the statisticians who made it.⁣ ⁣ Three weeks ago, that kind of suppression was illegal in America. Now it isn't. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/…
newsletter.platypuseconomics.com
The Sentence That Used to Protect American Statistics
"Protection from inappropriate influence is a hallmark of scientific integrity." That line governed the Census Bureau and then the White House quietly disappeared it.
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Stan Veuger @stanveuger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
@graemeblair.com, David Hausman, and I organized an amicus brief in Genalo v . G.M., a case the Supreme Court will hear in October. The case revolves around the question of whether due process requires bond hearings for those subject to prolonged immigration detention under Section 1226(c).
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
So happy to be part of this effort on climate coalitions, spearheaded by @cwolfram.bsky.social, who provides a great thread here. See also our recent piece in Science discussing these ideas. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Building a scalable climate coalition for heavy industry
Emissions could be reduced, with minimal impact on production, while generating billions in public revenues
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
So delighted to be part of this project! Great thread from @cwolfram.bsky.social on our paper in Science.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
thehill.com/opinion/camp...
thehill.com
5 reasons Democrats should be the party of free trade
While we’ve been distracted by the scapegoating of trading partners and immigrants, the administration has made the economic lives of the middle class more precarious.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
(1/2) Free trade is a winning issue for Democrats, something I've argued for some time (albeit w/o success during Biden); see next tweet for one example. Democrats should vow to surrender in the Canada trade war open.substack.com/pub/matthewy...
open.substack.com
Democrats should vow to surrender in the Canada trade war
Good politics, good policy, and the search for a peaceful world require complete repudiation of this nonsense.
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
IIPF - International Institute of Public Finance @iipf.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Final keynote at #IIPF2026 : @kclausing.bsky.social on "Evaluating Trump's Tariffs by Tax Policy Criteria"; chair: @ronbdavies.bsky.social (by far not the last event in the program; more working sessions to follow + IIPF and @itaxjournal.bsky.social awards to be announed at closing dinner)
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Hear me out. What if instead of selling food below cost to all comers at taxpayer expense, then using more taxpayer dollars to subsidize private companies that can't compete, we had a program targeting nutritional assistance just to the people who needed it, as a sort of supplement?
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Maybe now that the bond market cares, US policymakers will follow? Eventually? Carville "I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.
nytimes.com
U.S. Debt Hits $40 Trillion as America’s Borrowing Binge Continues
President Trump’s promises to restore fiscal order and reduce the amount of America’s debt burden have been undercut by spending on the Iran war, tax cuts and tariff refunds.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The politics of this tax are mystifying. Why object to increasing taxes on the transfer of intergenerational wealth if only the richest 4 in 1000 pay? Returning to 2009 policy & ending loopholes should be a no-brainer. And yet. @taxpolicycenter.bsky.social taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/who-w...
taxpolicycenter.org
Who Would Be Affected By A Decrease In The Estate Tax Exemption?
Estate taxes are one segment of the federal tax code that can tax wealth, yet they used to be much stronger. TPC simulated the effects of different exemption levels to find out how the would affect cu...
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
While the parade of news may desensitize readers, the human cost (and moral bankruptcy) of Trump immigration policies is enormous. Many do not have the legal assistance/connections that benefit the woman in this example, who says "I never thought that it was so easy to take freedom from anyone".
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
In which I take my gloves off (see end of piece). Trump Is Trapped in a Maelstrom of His Own Making www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump Is Trapped in a Maelstrom of His Own Making
The president’s zero-sum mind-set is turning us all into losers.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
(2/2) Some of these distinctions are discussed in my 2023 blog w/ @cwolfram.bsky.social below. (We also wrote a 2023 JEP article for those who want more details: www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...) www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
piie.com
Putting progress over protectionism in climate policy
The COP28 climate summit in Dubai ended this month with a historic pledge to hasten the transition away from carbon emissions caused by fossil fuels. But that commitment is toothless without incentive...
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
(1/2) This US ambassador to the EU is deeply confused. The EU cbam applies EU carbon policy evenly to domestic and foreign goods alike; it is not discriminatory. In contrast, US tariffs are just that, protectionism. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Europe’s carbon mechanism is a tariff by another name
The EU has denounced US duties while imposing its own protectionist measures dressed up as climate policy
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Out today: part 2 of my blog with Maurice Obstfeld on why so-called "optimal" tariffs are not optimal. Within, we discuss the latest research on tariff incidence, and what we've learned from the Trump tariffs so far...
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Douglas Irwin @douglasirwin.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
They always say their tariff worked
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
(2/2) Even beyond the distortions, regressivity, dysfunction, and harm to foreign relations, tariffs are also failing as a revenue instrument. To give some perspective, total federal revenues are about 20x tariff revenues for 2025, and in 2026 tariff revenues will be lower.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
(1/2) My new blog out today with Maurice Obstfeld. We discuss why so-called "optimal tariffs" are far from optimal. In part 1 today, we show problems with the textbook argument, and note that other tax instruments are superior for the underlying aims.
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Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 27/07/2026
Trump's Section 301 tariffs reach beyond the statute’s intention @kclausing.bsky.social says, & the focus on forced labor “is a mere pretext for recreating the IEEPA tariff regime.” There's “no evidence linking this sort of trade measure to the supposed policy goal” of cracking down on forced labor.
cnbc.com
Trump sued hours after new tariffs take effect, as experts say they may not hold up
President Donald Trump has renewed a flurry of tariffs, including slapping 25% duties on Brazilian imports and vowing 50% tariffs on goods from Canada.
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
under the cloak of boring technical guidance, the Trump administration is working to delete the existence of millions of immigrants, steal congressional seats and redirect potentially hundreds of billions of federal dollars www.thebulwark.com/p/inside-tru...
thebulwark.com
Inside Trump’s Stealth Trick to Rig the Census—and Congress
The administration’s latest power grab is disguised as boring technical guidance.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Let's be clear. Trump's new tariffs merely recreate his unlawful IEEPA tariffs, and they are also unlawful. But it will take the courts a long time to establish this, if they do. In the meantime, US consumers and businesses will pay the price. www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
piie.com
Trump's new tariffs over forced labor are unlikely to survive a court challenge
The Trump administration is again shifting its stated rationale for placing comprehensive tariffs on imports of nearly all goods from virtually all countries. After originally presenting such measures...
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Cool cool cool I see Trump is now actually employing Smoot-Hawley. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/b...
nytimes.com
Trump to Impose 50% Tariff on Many Canadian Goods
The administration will use an untested legal provision to put significant duties on Canadian exports, reigniting a clash with one of America’s biggest trading partners.
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 18/07/2026
Yesterday the US Administration supercharged its explicit effort to bar international students from staying in the US after graduation. All Americans should know: 1/3 of *all* STEM PhDs working in the US are immigrants who graduated from US universities, then stayed. www.piie.com/index%2Ephp/...
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 22/01/2026
ICE is in fact the worst of the worst
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Catherine Wolfram @cwolfram.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
🔥 Here in Boston, like elsewhere, we're seeing air pollution from Canadian wildfires — the odd-colored sun, the haze, and the real health risks that come with it. This has real costs. @kclausing.bsky.social, @knittelmit.bsky.social and I tallied ways that U.S. hhs have experienced climate change.
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Reposted by Kimberly Clausing
John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
To estimate whether data centers raise electricity bills, you need to solve a classic econometric problem: data centers pick low-price locations, which makes them look good. Our solution involves Dwight Eisenhower. New working paper with @asawatten.bsky.social and Geoff Blanford 🧵
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
(12/12) The event also included two other papers and is (in my view) a fun watch. The first hour is on corporate and the second on pass-through. www.hamiltonproject.org/event/taking...
hamiltonproject.org
Taking on tax: The future of corporate taxation - The Hamilton Project
On June 16, The Hamilton Project, the Tax Law Center at NYU Law, and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center hosted an event on business tax reform.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
(11/12) We are a long way from being able to legislate these sorts of changes soon. But 2029 will be a moment to push for more fiscal responsibility. The corporate tax can be a bit part of making a tax system fit for purpose. Paper link: www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...
hamiltonproject.org
The future of US international corporate tax reform - The Hamilton Project
Kimberly Clausing proposes to strengthen and reform U.S. corporate taxation while better aligning U.S. corporate tax policy efforts with the potential of international collective action.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
(10/12) Instead of burdening consumers, the corporate tax burdens shareholders. And w/ reforms to the base, corp. tax can be efficient. Whereas tariffs create large distortions, geopolitical harms, corruption, uncertainty, and harms to the export sector. www.piie.com/publications...
piie.com
Tariffs as Fiscal Policy
The year 2025 brought a remarkable shift in the role of tariffs in the US economy, as the Trump administration simultaneously escalated the use of broad tariffs and ensured that Congress enacted large...
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
(9/12) As for offshoring, this approach is more efficient and more progressive than tariffs. Instead of creating a tilt in the playing field in favor of things we do poorly, we address the existing tilt in the tax playing field in favor of foreign income.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
[8/12] I also suggest levying the tax increase only on the largest (by profit) 2% of firms, with a surtax applying to the largest <0.5% of firms. This has both political and economic benefits, providing a nudge toward more competitive firms & no tax increase pain for 98% of payers.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
[7/12] We have a good tool to tackle excess profits, whether derived from AI, the use of AI, launching objects into space, or oil price windfalls due to supply side shocks. It’s the corporate profits tax. We just need the courage to strengthen and simplify corporate tax.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
[6/12] A third motive for the proposal is that is provides a good, flexible, time-tested answer to two very salient questions: What to do about AI? What to do about offshoring?
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
[5/12] If the US legislates a strong country by country minimum tax in 2029, it will be in a position to help lead future reform efforts to strengthen and simplify Pillar 2 taxes. This sort of cooperative approach can help all countries that struggle to build tax systems suited to global challenges.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
[4/12] The second big motive is that international efforts are still needed to combat profit shifting and tax competition, forces that are alive and well, thanks in part to recent weakening of Pillar 2 global min tax. Still, Pillar 2 efforts are a good starting point.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
[3/12] While this is a lot of (2030s) revenue, it is only 0.86 percent of GDP, so would close ~ half of the gap between US corporate revenue/GDP ratios and those of peer nations, which are about 1.5-2 percentage points higher. US public companies are the most successful in the world.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
(2/12) With a huge thanks to @budgetmodel.bsky.social for scoring, the plan would raise a lot of revenue. And that is a key motivation for the proposal. We need revenue, capital income is the best base to bear higher taxes, and the entity level of tax is best way to holistically tax capital.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
🧵(1/12) On Tuesday, @hamiltonproject.org released my proposal on reforming US international tax. I suggest raising corporate rates for the biggest profit taxpayers, and strengthening US international tax rules to better align with the large potential of international efforts.
hamiltonproject.org
The future of US international corporate tax reform - The Hamilton Project
Kimberly Clausing proposes to strengthen and reform U.S. corporate taxation while better aligning U.S. corporate tax policy efforts with the potential of international collective action.
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The Hamilton Project @hamiltonproject.org · 18/06/2026
@kclausing.bsky.social proposes a package of corporate tax reforms that would strengthen U.S. corporate taxation while better aligning U.S. corporate tax policy efforts with the large potential of international collective action.
hamiltonproject.org
The future of US international corporate tax reform - The Hamilton Project
Kimberly Clausing proposes to strengthen and reform U.S. corporate taxation while better aligning U.S. corporate tax policy efforts with the potential of international collective action.
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The Hamilton Project @hamiltonproject.org · 15/06/2026
TOMORROW at 3 PM ET: @hamiltonproject.org, @taxlawcenter.org, and @taxpolicycenter.bsky.social are hosting an event on business tax reform. www.hamiltonproject.org/event/taking...
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The Hamilton Project @hamiltonproject.org · 09/06/2026
Next week, we’ll be getting down to business (taxation) with @avivaaron-dine.bsky.social, @kclausing.bsky.social, @richardrubindc.bsky.social, and more. Join us on 6/16 @ 3 p.m. ET: www.hamiltonproject.org/event/taking...
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Figure shows US corporate revenue relative to GDP is far lower than that in typical G20 or OECD countries.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
(2)/2 I'll post a thread on my paper soon. Corporate tax reform can generate revenue, improve tax fairness, enhance efficiency, and better align with the large potential of reforms abroad. It can also counter distortions in favor of foreign activity. In contrast, tariffs create new distortions.
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Kimberly Clausing @kclausing.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
(1/2) Looking forward to talking tax @hamiltonproject.org in one week, on June 16! At the event, the conversation will focus on three new business tax proposals, including my own proposal, a DBCFT proposal, and a pass-through reform. www.hamiltonproject.org/event/taking...
hamiltonproject.org
Taking on tax: The future of corporate taxation - The Hamilton Project
On June 16, The Hamilton Project, the Tax Law Center at NYU Law, and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center will host an event on business tax reform.
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 15/05/2026
MIT has lost 500 international grad students relative to last year. Caused directly by the White House. Closing America's doors to the very best, most brilliant people on the planet is like dropping a bomb directly on America's capacity to innovate. On the prosperity of our children's future.
youtube.com
A message from MIT President Sally Kornbluth
YouTube video by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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