I like the think I’m a reasonably savvy observer of public opinion and international economics, but every so often I’m stunned by some bit of data. Several years ago, for instance, I was very surprised to see that more than half of the French people would consider moving to the United States if they had […]
read more...Are there any fact checkers at the New York Times? Since they’ve allowed some glaring mistakes by Paul Krugman (see here and here), I guess the answer is no. But some mistakes are worse than others. Consider a recent column by David Stuckler of Oxford and Sanjay Basu of Stanford. Entitled “How Austerity Kills,” it […]
read more...The main goal of fiscal policy should be to shrink the burden of government spending as a share of economic output. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve this modest goal. All that’s required is to make sure the private sector grows faster than the government. But it’s very easy for me to bluster […]
read more...I’ve written many times about how investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners and other successful people migrate from high-tax states to low-tax states. Well, the same thing happens internationally, as France’s greedy politicians are now learning. It’s a lot harder for Americans to escape our tax system, though, in part because of reprehensible exit taxes that […]
read more...Whenever someone proposes that we need more intervention from the federal government, I always go to the Constitution and check Article I, Section VIII. This is because I’m old fashioned and I actually think the Founding Fathers weren’t joking when they granted only a few enumerated powers to the federal government. And when I check […]
read more...Political insiders remember Tim Geithner for his role in promoting the bailout culture and crony capitalism in Washington. Comedians remember him for the laughable hypocrisy of urging higher taxes for others while cheating on his own tax return. But I mostly think of him as being the Forrest Gump of international economics. This was the […]
read more...The most recent jobs report from the Labor Department contains both good news and the bad news. If you’re a glass-half-full person, you’ll want to focus on some positive trends. The joblessness rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since Obama became President. Private-sector jobs are increasing. As I’ve noted before, the economy seems […]
read more...I’m either a total optimist or a glutton for punishment. I recently explained the benefits of “tax havens” for the unfriendly readers of the New York Times. Now I’m defending a different form of tax competition for CNN, another news outlet that leans left. In this case, the topic is whether states can reach beyond […]
read more...I’ve cited some remarkable examples of Orwellian language abuse. The World Bank published a study of national tax systems and countries with higher tax burdens were rewarded with a grade of “high effort.” A German bureaucrat accused a Czech politician of “obstructing the democratic process” for blocking a treaty, even though voters weren’t allowed to […]
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