Europe’s large welfare states are dragging the continent down.
read more...Shady goings on at the WHO, a tax harmonization update from the EU, and what the NSA tells us about the importance of financial privacy.
read more...Europe is in deep trouble. That’s an oversimplification, of course, since there are a handful of nations that seem to be moving in the right direction (or at least not moving rapidly in the wrong direction). But notwithstanding those exceptions, Europe in general issuffering from economic stagnation caused by a bloated public sector. Barring dramatic change, another fiscal crisis is […]
read more...I’m not a big fan of Obamanomics. I don’t like the President’s class-warfare mentality on taxes. I don’t like his support for Keynesian spending policy. And I don’t like his costly expansions of government such as Obamacare. Indeed, I even like mocking his reflexive statism. That being said, I fully agree (albeit with some important caveats) with his observation that the United States […]
read more...I’m a big believer that real-world examples can teach us about the benefits of good fiscal policy (think Hong Kong, Estonia, Canada, and the U.S. under Reagan and Clinton) and the costs of bad fiscal policy (France, Cyprus, Greece, and the U.S. under Bush and Obama). Today, let’s look at another example of bad fiscal policy. And we’re going to pick on […]
read more...Libertarians tend to like – or at least have a grudging respect for – the underground economy. For instance, even if we’re personally very straight-laced, we don’t like government prohibitions against gambling, drugs, and prostitution. This is why we’re not upset when these things happen in spite of the laws enacted by the political class. But […]
read more...I wrote the other day that Americans, regardless of all the bad policy we get from Washington, should be thankful we’re not stuck in a hellhole like Venezuela. But we also should be happy we’re not Europeans. This is a point I’ve made before, usually accompanied by data showing that Americans have significantly higher living standards than their cousins on the other […]
read more...As part of my “great moments” in government series, I periodically share stories about really foolish regulations and really wasteful spending. And sometimes I’ll even have a story that combines dumb regulation and boondoggle spending. For instance, you won’t believe the government’s inane approach to different-sized condoms. I also have a satirical series about “great moments in human rights” and […]
read more...While I mostly focus on bad government policy in the United States, I also think we can learn lessons from what’s happening in other nations. In some cases, I share positive stories, such as the success of privatized Social Security in Australia, nationwide school choice in Sweden, and genuine spending cuts in the Baltic nations. In most cases, though, I’m pointing […]
read more...While theory is important, I suspect most people are more likely to be convinced by real-world evidence. This is why I frequently compare nations when arguing that free markets and small government are the best way of generating prosperity. Simply stated, I want people to understand that economic liberty produces faster growth, and that faster growth can make […]
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