Down to the airport, back to L.A.

If you need confirmation that the Biden-Wyden team will never get anything serious done on taxes, here's a sign: Kimberly Clausing, formerly a Reed College econ prof (and a good one), has left her high-up tax policy post in the federal Treasury Department after little more than a year. She's is already back at her chair at UCLA Law School, and on her web page there, the Treasury gig is deep in the past tense.

Clausing is an international tax specialist, and she was part of an administration team that was going to sock it to the big multi-national corporations that dodge U.S. taxes by funneling profits, on paper at least, through such tax havens as Liechtenstein, Ireland, and Mexico. But like everything else when Wyden's in charge (he's in his second stint as Senate Finance Committee chair), that ain't happening, nor is it going to be.

The Wall Street Journal is tickled pink:

“A lot of the White House’s cleverest tax-raisers seem to be departing in a flurry,” tweets Alan Cole of Full Stack Economics. “That may suggest they think the business tax hikes are dead for this Congress.”

Do we dare to dream?

As a guy who has to keep up with the ever-changing tax laws, sometimes I think gridlock is my friend. But for the sake of the country, it's bad news indeed. Orange Caligula and the Turtle rammed through some major, wicked tax law changes. In contrast, Biden will achieve bupkis. And Professor Clausing will be back at the whiteboard. Good news for the students, at least.