Hooray for the 'N' word!

And hooray to Bernie Sanders to bringing it into our political discourse.

I'm referring of course to the word "ninety" - as in ninety percent top marginal tax rate - the approximate rate we had in the Eisenhower years, when we were able to balance our federal budget, and raise the revenue to build the interstate highway system.

While 90% may not be the optimal top marginal tax rate for raising adequate revenue without doing economic damage (Diamond and Saez put the rate somewhere between 50% and 70%), Sanders is doing us a favor by putting the higher figure out for discussion - so that settling on a lower but still effective rate could seem reasonable.

(My own suggestions for marginal rates included in this post)