Six policies from NPR

"Six policies economists love (and politicians hate)" From NPRs Planet Money

The Planet Money team got together a group of economists from widely differing political backgrounds, and came up with this very nice list of policies the economists all agreed on--which are all regarded as hopeless in the standard political debate.

1. Eliminate the mortgage tax deduction.
2. End the tax deduction companies get for providing health-care to employees.
3. Eliminate the corporate income tax. Completely.
4. Eliminate all income and payroll taxes. ... Instead, impose a consumption tax.
5. Tax carbon emissions. 
6. Legalize marijuana.

It is often perceived that economists don't agree on anything, or that economists are pretty much just like everyone else in the spectrum of their policy views -- that economics training really has no clarifying effect on one's worldview. This list is a nice counterexample. We could probably safely add eliminating all agricultural subsidies and free trade.

(I quoted the proposals as above. In fact, the health tax exemption applies to individuals, and it's for employer-provided group health insurance, not care.  Hat tip, I found the NPR story in a nice post on econlog)