Author Archives : Dan Mitchell
What Can We Learn by Comparing the Employment Situation in Texas vs. California?
One of the great things about federalism, above and beyond the fact that it both constrains the power of governments and is faithful to the Constitution, is that is turns every state into an experiment. We can learn what works best (though the President seems incapable of learning the right lesson). We know, for instance, […]
read more...Apparently Learning Nothing from the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac Disaster, the Obama Administration Wants to Subsidize Banks to Make More Dodgy Loans
The Obama Administration is proposing to once again put the economy at risk by subsidizing banks to give mortgages to people with poor credit, even though we’re still dealing with the economic and fiscal damage caused by the last episode of government housing subsidies!
read more...What’s the Right Point on the Laffer Curve?
Back in 2010, I wrote a post entitled “What’s the Ideal Point on the Laffer Curve?“ Except I didn’t answer my own question. I simply pointed out that revenue maximization was not the ideal outcome. I explained that policy makers instead should seek to maximize prosperity, and that this implied a much lower tax rate. […]
read more...Being in Favor of Markets Is Not the Same of Being in Favor of Business
Folks, the pendulum is swinging in the right direction. In recent weeks, I’ve shared a bunch of examples to support my hypothesis that libertarians, small-government conservatives, and classical liberals are finally making some progress. This trend actually started with the fiscal cliff, though that was simply a smaller-than-expected defeat. Since then, we’ve enjoyed victories on […]
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Another Victory for Good Fiscal Policy
Our lords and masters in Washington have taken a small step in the direction of recognizing the Laffer Curve. Here are some details from a Politico report. Here’s one Republican victory that went virtually unnoticed in the slew of budget votes last week: The Senate told the Congressional Budget Office it should give more credit […]
read more...Ranking the States for Economic and Personal Freedom
Sometimes I myopically focus on fiscal policy, implying that the key to prosperity is small government. But I’ll freely admit that growth is maximized when you have small government AND free markets. That being said, our goal should be to expand freedom, not merely to have the largest possible GDP. Which is why the Freedom […]
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Does Your Family Have an Extra $5,500 to Pay the Higher Energy Taxes Proposed by the Bureaucrats at the IMF (Who Get Tax-Free Salaries)?
If asked to name my least-favorite international bureaucracy, the easy answer would be the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. After all, it was only a few days ago that I outlined different ways that the Paris-based bureaucracy is seeking to expand statism and reduce freedom around the world. I’m particularly nauseated by the OECD’s […]
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Revenge of the Laffer Curve…Again and Again and Again
If I live to be 100 years old, I suspect I’ll still be futilely trying to educate politicians that there’s not a simplistic linear relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. You can’t double tax rates, for instance, and expect to double tax revenue. Simply stated, there’s another variable – called taxable income – that […]
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California’s Golden Bureaucrat Snags $400K of Yearly Compensation – for the Rest of Her Life!
Check out some of the ridiculous details about the woman who has earned the title of California’s Golden Bureaucrat. Alameda County supervisors have really taken to heart the adage that government should run like a business — rewarding County Administrator Susan Muranishi with the Wall Street-like wage of $423,664 a year. For the rest of […]
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