by Dan Mitchell | May 29, 2022 | Big Government, Blogs
Everyone likes the idea of “state capacity,” at least when it means competent, honest government rather than dysfunctional, corrupt government. But the consensus disappears when some folks argue that you achieve this goal by making government bigger. It’s...
by Dan Mitchell | May 28, 2022 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation, Uncategorized
Back in 2018, I shared some academic research on the relationship between state tax rates and the performance of professional football teams. The main takeaway is that teams based in high-tax states did not win as many games, on average, as teams based in...
by Dan Mitchell | May 27, 2022 | Blogs, Crime, Society
I support the the right to keep and bear arms. That said, the horrific school shooting in Texas almost leads me to wish that guns did not exist. Here’s some of what I said as part of a recent episode of The Square Circle. My main argument during the program is that...
by Dan Mitchell | May 26, 2022 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
America’s fiscal future is very grim, largely because of an ever-expanding burden of entitlement spending. To see the magnitude of the problem, let’s peruse the Budget and Economic Outlook, which was released yesterday by the Congressional...
by Dan Mitchell | May 25, 2022 | Blogs, Taxation
I’m not a fan of the International Monetary Fund, in part because the international bureaucracy is infamous for pressuring nations to impose higher taxes. The bureaucrats at the IMF have even claimed that higher taxes somehow will...