Monetary Policy, Taxation, and International Investment Strategy

Written especially for portfolio managers, financial analysts, and corporate economists, this volume considers the practical implications of government economic policies. The contributors illustrate how incentives and disincentives affect economic behavior and the performance of the economy through an in-depth discussion of monetary, fiscal, and international economic issues. In addition, the authors present a unique top-down approach that enables the reader to trace the impact of government policies through the economy and thereby discover the investment strategies most likely to be successful within a given policy context. The first section of the book focuses on monetary issues and explores issues related to inflation, likely government intervention mechanisms to control inflation, variants of the monetarist model, interpreting the demand curve, and the development of a portfolio strategy designed to take advantage of anticipated changes in financial variables. The next group of chapters looks at supply-side economics and analyzes the effects of the economic incentives and constraints imposed by government. Particular attention is paid to the effects of taxation policies on equity values, economic growth, and savings. In the third section, the contributors present a supply-side view of selected international economic issues including the relationship between tax rate reductions and foreign exchange rates and the trade balance. The concluding section examines the portfolio strategies that can be derived from the analyses presented in previous chapters. An indispensable resource for finance executives, this book will also be of significant value to graduate students in economics, financial management, and business programs.

VICTOR A. CANTO is President of A. B. Laffer, V. A. Canto & Associates, an economic research and financial consulting firm. His articles have appeared in leading economic journals, and he is the author of several books, including Supply-Side Portfolio Strategies(Quorum, 1988), co-authored with A. B. Laffer, the Financial Analyst's Guide to Fiscal Policy (Praeger, 1985), and The Financial Analyst's Guide to Monetary Policy (Praeger, 1986). ARTHUR B. LAFFER is Chairman of A. B. Laffer, V. A. Canto & Associates and was a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board. He received two Graham and Dodd Awards from the Financial Analyst Federation for outstanding feature articles published in the Financial Analysts Journal, has written for many other financial journals, including the American Economic Review, and is the author/co-author of several economics books.