President Trump has been continuously thwarted in Congress as he seeks money to build a border wall. After all, his critics contend, he said he would make Mexico pay for the thing, so why should they vote any money forward for it, especially the tens of billions of dollars it requires? Turns out there are some good ideas coming forward for it. The best one, is the taxing of immigrant remittances, a straightforward exit tax taken directly from cash transmitted through the banking system. It works because the money is often earned under the table and is thus, untaxed the way other Americans's income is. It also makes sense because the cash being remitted is critical to the Mexican and Central American governments that depend on the incoming funds (in Mexico's case, more important than oil earnings), and less of it coming across gets the message across that Mexico is paying, even if not all of the remittances are sent by illegal migrants. (Most of it is.) The other good...(Read Full Post)