I’ve complained many times about the pointless nature of anti-money laundering laws. They impose very high costs and force banks to spy on their customers, but they are utterly ineffective as a weapon against criminal activity. Yet politicians and bureaucrats keep…
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.
Explaining in the New York Post Why Obama’s Soak-the-Rich Tax Policy Is Doomed to Failure
I think high tax rates on certain classes of citizens are immoral and discriminatory. If the government is going to collect revenue, all taxpayers should be treated equally, with something akin to a simple flat tax. But most people don’t seem to care about having the…
Professor Greg Mankiw: If You Value Individual Liberty, then Protect, Promote, and Preserve Competition Between Governments
Other than my experiment dealing with corporate taxation, the first video I narrated for the Center for Freedom and Prosperity dealt with the issue of tax competition. It was a deliberate choice because I view competition among governments as one of the few effective…
Time to Follow Sweden’s Lead on Fiscal Policy
Sweden has a very large and expensive welfare state, but it’s actually becoming a bit of a role model for economic reform. I’ve already commented on the country’s impressive school choice system and noted that the Swedes have partially privatized their Social Security…
The Right Capital Gains Tax Rate Is Zero
The silly debate about the “Buffett Rule” is really an argument about the extent to which there should be more double taxation of income that is saved and invested. Politicians conveniently forget that dividends and capital gains get hit by the corporate income tax….
Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
A problem in Washington is that people who specialize in particular fields are tempted to exaggerate the importance of their issues. To cite a couple of examples: People who work on monetary policy think their issue is most important, and you can understand why after…
A Nauseating Example of Cronyism, Sleaze, and Corruption at the Export-Import Bank
One of my first posts on this blog featured this video showing how big government breeds corruption. I’ve periodically provided examples of how this process works, citing Alaska, Chicago, Wall Street, and Washington. Here’s another example, explicitly showing how big…
The 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts Should Not Be Allowed to Expire
Simon Johnson is a professor at MIT and a former IMF official. With that kind of resume, you won’t be surprised to learn that he is much too sympathetic to big government. For instance, we both testified to the Ways & Means Committee last year about the…
The Laffer Curve Shows that Tax Increases Are a Very Bad Idea – even if They Generate More Tax Revenue
The Laffer Curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between tax rates, tax revenue, and taxable income. It is frequently cited by people who want to explain the common-sense notion that punitive tax rates may not generate much additional revenue if…
Notwithstanding the “Grand Bargain” Siren Song, there’s No Practical Argument for Tax Hikes
Many people think that my opposition to tax increases is ideological, but they’re wrong. If someone told me that I magically had the power to flick a switch and give the country a flat tax, but that simple and fair tax system would only be possible if the rate was set…