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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

I’ve written before about the remarkable vitality of Hong Kong and Singapore, two jurisdictions that deserve praise for small government and free markets. I have also praised Switzerland because of policies such as genuine federalism and financial privacy, and it goes without saying that I admire tax havens such as Bermuda, Monaco, and the Cayman […]

I can say with great confidence that government bureaucrats are overpaid compared to people in the productive sector of the economy. Why am I sure that this is true, particularly when the so-called Federal Salary Council claims bureaucrats are underpaid? For the simple reason that the “job opening and labor turnover” data from the Department […]