by Dan Mitchell | Nov 6, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
The case against the value-added tax (VAT) is not complicated. Simply stated, this hidden type of national sales tax was a key precursor for the expansion of the European welfare state. As you can see in the chart, the burden of government spending...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 5, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
When I unveiled my Eighth Theorem of Government in 2020, my target was the head of the International Monetary Fund, a bureaucrat with a very generous tax-free salary who wanted other people to pay higher taxes to fund bigger welfare states. Her...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 4, 2025 | Blogs, Economics
My intense support for Javier Milei is not because I care deeply about Argentina (though it is a very nice country and I want it to prosper). Instead, as I explain in this one-minute clip, I’m mostly hoping Milei’s economic and political success will encourage other...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 2, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
About two months ago, I wrote that the United Kingdom needed to copy Javier Milei and dramatically reduce the burden of government spending. The immediate goal should be to reverse the post-pandemic spending surge of the Johnson and...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 1, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
Let’s look today at European fiscal policy. But instead of focusing on the immediate issue (the likelihood of another fiscal crisis), we’re going to investigate whether we can learn anything by looking at what’s happened in the past. My two cents, based...