Wall Street Journal editors offer a positive assessment of the tax plan unveiled by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush.

"Mr. Bush’s proposal is a vast improvement on the current tax code that would give the economy a huge lift," according to The Journal's editorial.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve's forecast model puts third-quarter GDP growth at only 1.5 percent.

Bush wants to reduce the present seven individual tax brackets to three, cutting taxes for the top bracket to 28 percent from 39.6 percent presently. The other two rates would be 25 percent and 10 percent. The top corporate tax rate would fall to 20 percent from 35 percent.

"The pro-growth news starts with a sharp reduction in marginal tax rates on individual and corporate income," Journal editors write. "These are big cuts that would have a major impact on the incentive to work and invest."

They see another bright spot in Bush's plan. "Perhaps his policy seriousness will steer Republicans away from this summer’s sloganeering and toward a debate about what really would make America great again," the editorial states.

Elsewhere on the economic front, investors and corporate chiefs assembled for summer lunches by Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Partners, don't see a downturn in the offing.

"Bear markets usually precede recessions, and almost everyone believed there was no recession in sight," he writes in Barron's. "One pointed out that no recession had ever occurred without at least one instance of Federal Reserve tightening."

Many economists expect the Fed to begin increasing interest rates at its meeting next week or in December. The Fed has kept short-term rates at a record low near zero since December 2008.

"Perhaps the widespread discussion of when the Fed would raise rates is a substitute for the reality of the actual move," Wien says. "But most observed that the United States was basically a consumer economy, exports represent only 13 percent of GDP, the unemployment rate had come down and those with jobs were still spending."

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