Time for another great moment in red tape. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that banks treat customers poorly in part because of bad laws and regulations from Washington. Money laundering laws were adopted beginning about 30 years ago based on the theory that we could…
Dan Mitchell
Daniel J. Mitchell is the President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. Dr. Mitchell advocates limited government and fundamental tax reform, and is the nation’s leading opponent of tax harmonization schemes developed by the Brussels-based European Union, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations.
In addition to fiscal policy, Dr. Mitchell is a trenchant observer of economic developments and an expert on Social Security reform – particularly the fiscal policy impact of reform and what the US can learn from other nations that have created personal retirement accounts.
Long-Term Growth and the Corrosive Impact of Obamanomics
One of my goals is to convince people that even small differences in long-run growth can have a powerful impact on living standards and societal prosperity. In other words, the economy is not a fixed pie. The right policies, such as free markets and small government,…
The Missing Data in Krugman’s German Austerity Narrative
There’s an ongoing debate about Keynesian economics, stimulus spending, and various versions of fiscal austerity, and regular readers know I do everything possible to explain that you can promote added prosperity by reducing the burden of government spending. Simply…
Minimum Wage Laws: Sabotaging the Ladder of Economic Opportunity
If I banged my head against the wall every time politicians advocated bad policy in Washington – which is a tempting impulse, I would have been institutionalized because of brain damage a long time ago. But it’s difficult to maintain my self control when I think…
Obamacare vs Bureaucrats: A Battle that Hopefully Will Have Lots of Casualties
There’s an old joke that a quandary exists when your mother-in-law drives off a cliff in your new Porsche. Are you more happy about losing her or more unhappy about losing your sports car? I’m not clever enough to come up with humorous quandaries, but I have shared…
White House Stimulus Report Based on “Keynesian Fairy Dust”
Did you sing Happy Birthday? The nation just “celebrated” the fifth anniversary of the signing of the so-called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly referred to as the “stimulus.” This experiment in Keynesian economics was controversial when it was…
Grim Times for Gun Grabbers
I’ve already explained why leftists must be depressed about their failure to restrict private gun ownership. They’ve suffered brutal electoral setbacks in Colorado, and more and more states have strengthened the right to keep and bear arms. Moreover, it’s…
Big Government and Tipping Points: Is America Is Doomed to Become a Failed European-Style Welfare State?
When I give speeches around the country, I often get asked whether it’s time to give up. More specifically, has America reached a tipping point, with too many people riding in the wagon of government dependency and too few people creating wealth and pulling the wagon…
ABBA and the Story of the Most-Inane-Ever Tax Controversy
The tax code is a complicated nightmare, particularly for businesses. Some people may think this is because of multiple tax rates, which definitely is an issue for all the non-corporate businesses that file “Schedule C” forms using the personal income tax. A…
Obamacare, Atlas Shrugged, and the Imperial Super-President
Just like Clark Kent could change into Superman, President Obama has a remarkable ability to change into King Obama. Tired of that pesky Constitution? Irritated that the Founding Fathers created a system based on separation of powers? Well,there’s a superhero to…