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Lucky French Taxpayers Get an Obama-Style Flat Tax
I joked back in 2010 that Barack Obama had a very simple flat tax proposal. But as you can see, sometimes simple isn’t the same as good. Well, satire too… Read more
UFOs, Faked Moon Landings, and Fiscal Policy
I was very pleased to report the other day that the people of France overwhelmingly favor spending cuts, even when they were asked a biased question that presupposed that Keynesian-style… Read more
Grim News from Greece about Grasping Government
I’m in Europe as part of a six-nation speaking tour, participating in the Free Market Road Show. My first speech was yesterday in Greece, which is infamous for a government… Read more
Hell Has Officialy Frozen Over: French Support Spending Cuts by Overwhelming 4-1 Margin
I like the think I’m a reasonably savvy observer of public opinion and international economics, but every so often I’m stunned by some bit of data. Several years ago, for… Read more
Another Example of Editorial-Page Fiction at the New York Times
Are there any fact checkers at the New York Times? Since they’ve allowed some glaring mistakes by Paul Krugman (see here and here), I guess the answer is no. But… Read more
Tax and Expenditure Limits: The Challenge of Turning Mitchell’s Golden Rule from Theory into Reality
The main goal of fiscal policy should be to shrink the burden of government spending as a share of economic output. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve this… Read more
Let’s Fix the Real Obesity Problem in Washington
Whenever someone proposes that we need more intervention from the federal government, I always go to the Constitution and check Article I, Section VIII. This is because I’m old fashioned… Read more
Huge Value-Added Tax Increases in Europe Show Why Washington Politicians Should Never Be Given a New Source of Tax Revenue
The most important, powerful, and relevant argument against the value-added tax in the short run is that we can balance the budget in just five years by capping spending so… Read more
How Bureaucrats and Politicians Conspire to Rip Off Taxpayers
I can say with great confidence that government bureaucrats are overpaid compared to people in the productive sector of the economy. Why am I sure that this is true, particularly… Read more
Where Are the European Spending Cuts?
Paul Krugman recently tried to declare victory for Keynesian economics over so-called austerity, but all he really accomplished was to show that tax-financed government spending is bad for prosperity. More… Read more