I’ve posted hundreds of charts over the past several years, including on favorite topics such as tax code corruption and counterproductive government spending. But arguably the most powerful and compelling chart I’ve ever shared is on the topic of education. Prepared by my Cato colleague, Andrew Coulson, it shows that massive increases in spending and bureaucracy (which accompanied increasing federal involvement […]

The title of today’s column may not make much sense if you’ve never watchedThe Producers, a 1960s Mel Brooks comedy featuring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, but you’ll soon see the connection. That’s because we’re going to laugh at Obamacare, otherwise known as the gift that keeps on giving, and Hitler is part of our […]

Last June, in response to a question about indiscriminate spying by the National Security Agency, I made two simple points about the importance of judicial oversight and cost-benefit analysis. I want – at a minimum – there to be judicial oversight whenever the government spies on American citizens, but I also think some cost-benefit analysis is appropriate. […]

Every so often, I share stories about the ridiculous and outrageous way in which the federal government squanders our money. So when I saw this New York Post story about the feds pissing away a six-figure sum on condom research, I figured this would be a perfect addition to my collection of government waste stories. The federal government is […]

Washington is in the middle of another debate about redistributing money. But that’s hardly newsworthy. Politics, after all, is basically a never-ending racket in which insiders buy votes and accumulate power with other people’s money. The current debate about extending unemployment benefits is remarkable, though (at least from an economic perspective), because certain politicians want to give people money on […]

In the famous “Bridge of Death” scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, some of the knights are asked to name their favorite color. One of them  mistakenly says blue instead of yellow and is hurled into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. I can sympathize with the unfortunate chap. If asked my least favorite part […]

I’ve shared many charts over the years, but two of the most compelling ones deal with poverty. The numbers in this chart, which are based on Census Bureau data and scholarly studies (see here, here, here, and here), show that the poverty rate was steadily falling in the United States – until the federal government decided to launch a so-called […]