Remember when Paul Krugman warned that there was a plot against France? He asserted that critics wanted to undermine the great success of France’s social model. I agreed with Krugman, at least in the limited sense that there is a plot against France. But I explained that the conspiracy to hurt the nation was being led […]
read more...It’s remarkable to read that European politicians are agitating to spend more money, supposedly to make up for “spending cuts” and austerity. To put it mildly, their Keynesian-based arguments reflect a reality-optional understanding of recent fiscal policy on the other side of the Atlantic. Here’s some of what Leonid Bershidsky wrote for Bloomberg. Just as France’s and Italy’s poor […]
read more...I’m in Australia for Consilium, an annual conference which is hosted by the Centre for Independent Studies. I spoke on fiscal policy and pontificated on the need for nations to restrain government spending. That’s an important message (at least in my humble option), but I thought it was more interesting to learn more about the tax and […]
read more...I’ve shared horror stories about government thuggery and I’ve shared horror stories about government stupidity. Thanks to Mark Steyn, we have a story that exemplifies both the brain-dead nature of the public sector and the nasty nature of our bureaucratic overlords. You may have read about the federal milk police. Well, here’s some of what Mark wrote about the Kafkaesque legal […]
read more...Some folks on the right in Washington, generally known as reformicons (short for reform conservatives), want the Republican Party to de-emphasize marginal tax rate reductions and instead focus on providing tax relief to parents. There are many leaders in this movement and, if you want to learn more about the tax proposals being discussed, I […]
read more...Since I primarily work on fiscal policy, I normally look at the budgetary impact of entitlement programs. And the numbers are very grim. But I’m also an economist, so I periodically comment on how government intervention undermines the efficient functioning of markets in the healthcare field. Last but not least, I’m also a taxpayer, so I can’t resist occasionally […]
read more...What do cigarettes and capital gains have in common? Well, they both start with the same letter, so maybe the Cookie Monster could incorporate them into his favorite song, but I’m thinking about something else. Specifically, both cigarettes and capital gains tell us something important about tax policy, the Laffer Curve, and the limits of political bullying. […]
read more...I shared a chart back in February that shows how long it takes to double GDP based on different growth rates. For instance, if the economy grows only 1 percent per year, it takes 70 years before the economy doubles. Think Italy or some other decrepit European welfare state. But if the economy grows 4 percent annually, […]
read more...I like to think that very few people despise Obamacare more than me. I don’t like Obamacare because it’s a fiscal boondoggle. I don’t like Obamacare because it’s bad healthcare policy. I don’t like Obamacare because it generated an embarrassingly bad decision by the Supreme Court. I don’t like Obamacare because it is driving people out of the labor forceand into government […]
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