recession cause and effect is an interesting thing. often times you can't definitively conclude that this caused that. there's always the possibility it's a coincidence. reagan cut taxes and we had a recession. reagan quietly raised taxes and the economy boomed. with a capital bee oh oh oh my. bush cut taxes and we had a recession. neither bush nor obama raised taxes. and the recession is still ongoing. though it seems positively wrong that cutting taxes could possibly cause a recession, let's put on our tin foil hats and wander on over to crazy town. the business called government announces its services are now on sale. with a sale you expect revenues to go down because the margin goes down. but you also expect revenues to go up because you move more inventory or provide more services. if things go well, you turn a tidy profit. otherwise, you can have a going out of business sale. for some people the outcome seems completely random. like a toss of the dice. in truth, a savvy businessman can predict accurately what will happen during your sale. suppose said savvy businesspersons applied their secret analysis to the government's tax cuts. and determined they're going to lose their shirts. in which case either the government will cut services. which would be bad for the economy because less money will be flowing around. or the government will borrow money to make up the difference. which will also be bad for business because there will be less money available to borrow for healthy business investments. and again, less money moves around within the economy. so can tax cuts actually cause a recession? i certainly haven't proved it. but maybe. timmer for president.  ¶ 8:00 AM