Alan Anthony Reynolds

Background

Reynolds, Alan Anthony was born on April 11, 1942 in Abilene, Texas, United States. Son of Alan DeForrest and Rosine (McDougall) Reynolds.

Education

Bachelor, University of California at Los Angeles, 1965;

postgraduate, Sacramento State College, 1967-1971.

Career

Department manager, J.C. Penny Company, Sacramento, 1965-1971;

associate editor, National Review, New York City, 1972-1975;

senior economist, Argus Research Corporation, New York City, 1976;

vice president, economist, First National Bank, Chicago, 1977-1980;

vice president, chief economist, Polyconomics Inc., Morristown, New Jersey, 1981-1989;

director economics research, Hudson Institute, Indianapolis, since 1990. Senior vice president hockey club Wainright & Company Economics, Boston. Consultant Leading Authorities, Washington.

Research director Kemp Tax Reform Commission, 1995.

Achievements

• Alan Anthony Reynolds has been listed as a noteworthy economist, speaker, consultant by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Income and Wealth (Greenwood Guides to Business and Economics)

    (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/562975.Income_and_Wealth)

    2006

Politics

Libertarian or Classical Liberal (in the traditional European sense)

Views

Opposed to war except in self-defense, and to imperial expansion. Opposed to tariffs and other trade restrictions aside from a modest revenue flat rate tariff (10% or less) equally applied to all traded goods from all countries.

Membership

Member Mont Pelerin Society, National Tax Association (member federal tax committee).

Connections

Married Karen Kane, February 27, 1965. Children: John Alan, Melissa Maurine.

Father:

Alan DeForrest Reynolds

Mother:

Rosine (McDougall) Reynolds

Spouse:

Karen Kane

child:

Melissa Maurine Reynolds

child:

John Alan Reynolds

friend and ally:

Jack Kemp

Reynolds was introduced to Jack Kemp by Jude Wanniski, former associate editor of The Wall Street Journal in 1976 or 1977. They worked together on the tax and inflation chapters in Kemp's book "An American Renaissance." Reynolds also consulted repeatedly with Kemp on the Kemp-Kasten Tax Reform Bill -- the genesis of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. For decades they spoke often on the phone, and met in D.C. At Kemp's memorial service, Reynolds spoke briefly about his long productive talks with Jack about economics.

friend and coworker:

Jude Wanniski

Wall Street Journal associate editor 1972-78 when he and Reynolds lived in Morristown NJ. They met at a poker game and commuted to Wall Street together after 1976 when Reynolds was at Argus Research. In 1978 Jude published "The Way The World Works" and founded a Morristown consulting firm, Polyconomics Inc. Reynolds later left First Chicago bank and joined him as V.P. chief economist from 1981 to 1990. Clients were mostly institutional money managers all around the U.S. (not just Wall Street) plus a few corporate or banking CEOs in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

https://grokipedia.com/page/Jude_Wanniski

mentor:

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman helped write Reynolds' first article in Reason in 1971 and remained a helpful lifelong friend. Reynolds became a member of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1976 and talked with Friedman at some of their meetings. There is a photo of them in the album.

friend and employer:

Mitch Daniels

References

• Brian Domitrovic, A Time for Action A historian finds Wm. F. Buckley's hiring of Reynolds in 1971 key to later success of "supply side economics" - a phrase and policy mix Reynolds promoted to Wall Street Journal editors Jude Wanniski & Bob Bartley.
  2014
• Brian Domitrovic Ch 6: "Alan Reynolds not only persuaded Robert Bartley to become a tax cutter. He was also the courier of the label that Bartley would identify with for the rest of his life: supply-sider."
  2009
• Tyler Cowen “Auten and Splinter are not the first to critique the Piketty-Saez-Zucman theory of the case [their claim that the top 1% share of income can be measured from individual income tax returns], Alan Reynolds took it on in his 2006 book Income and Wealth.”
  2023
• Lawrence B. Lindsey “The expert on this subject [international comparisons of marginal tax rates] is Alan Reynolds . . . who has written numerous articles on this subject.”
  1990
• David R. Henderson Alan Reynolds has posted two excellent responses to criticisms of him by Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong. They are “Imaginary Squabbles Part 3: Krugman and DeLong’s Changing Theories and Missing Facts” and “Imaginary Squabbles Part 4: Krugman and DeLong on the Top 1 Percent.” My favorite of two is the second one above, probably because it addresses issues I have followed more closely. You could easily spend hours clicking on all the links and then judging, against these links, both Reynolds’ claims on the one hand and Krugman’s and DeLong’s claims on the other. I have spent only about 90 minutes and so it’s possible that Reynolds made mistakes that I didn’t notice.
• Thomas Sowell "Measuring the growth of incomes or the inequality of incomes is a little like Olympic figure skating—full of dangerous leaps and twirls and not nearly as easy as it looks." Quote from Alan Reynolds' book (which is extensively cites) used as a chapter heading in Sowell's book "Economic Facts and Fallacies."
  2008