by Dan Mitchell | Jan 17, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations
The great French economist from the 1800s, Frederic Bastiat, famously explained that good economists are aware that government policies have indirect effects (the “unseen”). Bad economists, by contrast, only consider direct effects (the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 16, 2024 | Blogs
I’ve shared two videos (start of this column and bottom of this column) describing libertarian people. Today, we have a video explaining libertarian philosophy. For all intents and purposes, Davies makes the utilitarian case for libertarianism. Simply stated,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 15, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Earlier this month, I explained that Ronald Reagan deserves praise for shrinking the burden of government spending. Today, starting with this video, let’s add Bill Clinton to the mix and look at how America wound up with budget surpluses in the late 1990s....
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 14, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
In Part I of this series, I explained that the War on Poverty, launched by Lyndon Johnson and expanded by other profligate presidents, has been bad news for both taxpayers and poor people. More specifically, I shared some academic research showing how it led to a big...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 13, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I’ve previously pointed out that the so-called War on Poverty is a failure, both for poor people and for taxpayers. My main argument is that poverty was steadily declining throughout American history, but that...
