Why are so many people upset that the Obama White House keeps arbitrarily changing parts of Obamacare – even when bad provisions are being suspendedor certain groups are being exempted from bad policy? Well, some of them may simply dislike Obama or government-run healthcare, and there’s nothing wrong with being against a politician or rejecting bigger government. But the […]

In previous columns, I’ve explained why a wealth tax is a very bad idea. And I’ve also pontificated on why leftists are wrong to pursue policies of coerced equality. So it goes without saying that I’m a big fan of a new Wall Street Journal column by John Steele Gordon. He writes that the anti-wealth ideology animating the political elite is based on a fundamental […]

I haven’t spent much time writing about Thomas Piketty’s inequality book for the simple reason that my goal is economic liberty, not equality. That being said, I think that Piketty is fundamentally misguided even if the goal is helping the poor. Simply stated, long-run growth is the best way of reducing poverty and boosting living standards. […]

I’m in Vancouver, Canada, for the biennial meeting of the World Taxpayers Associations. I gave a speech on why tax competition is a valuable force to constrain the greed of the political class, but warned the audience that high-tax governments and international bureaucracies are using financial protectionism to coerce low-tax jurisdictions into weakening their good policies. But regular […]

On many occasions, I’ve explained that economic output is a function of how much labor and capital are productively utilized. This is why I relentlessly criticize policies that undermine GDP growth by hindering the use of these “factors of production.” That’s a bit of economic jargon, but it helps to explain why we shouldn’t be discriminating against capital […]

Well, another loser killed a bunch of people, this time in Santa Barbara, California. Which gives gun control zealots an opportunity to seize upon the tragedy to recycle their calls to restrict private firearms ownership and otherwise erode the Second Amendment. But I’m not too worried that they’ll succeed. The evidence is simply too strongthat gun […]

If you appreciate the common-sense notion of the Laffer Curve, you’re in for a treat. Today’s column will discuss the revelation that Francois Hollande’s class-warfare tax hikes have not raised nearly as much money as predicted. And after the recent evidence about the failure of tax hikes in Hungary, Ireland,Detroit, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this news from the BBC probably should be […]

I believe in free markets and small government, and I’m also against Washington corruption. Which is why I want to abolish the Department of Agriculture. And I suspect all sensible people will agree after reading excerpts from these three articles. We’ll start with Damon Cline, who produced a searing indictment of farm welfare for the Augusta Chronicle. Alexis de Tocqueville posited […]