To follow up on a previous post, here is a column by John Lott, which makes the very sensible point that shifting resources from the productive sector of the economy to the government necessarily will cause dislocation in the short run. There also would be inefficiency in the long run, but that’s a separate issue:  …the stimulus […]

This gem was linked on Instapundit. According to the UK-based Telegraph, European taxpayers are getting ripped off to the tune of about $300,000 so the European Commission can send comic books about heroic bureaucrats to schools across the continent. You can’t make this stuff up. They are normally painted as faceless, grey Eurocrats ridiculed for […]

Watch it here:    http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4830692

There were many reasons to oppose last year’s so-called stimulus legislation. High on my list of reasons would be that the $800 billion spending bill was based on discredited Keynesian theory. Government spending diverts resources from the productive sector of the economy would be another good reason. Another one of my favorites is that the […]

With the VAT becoming an ever-bigger issue, Dan Mitchell discusses the issue on CNBC. Dan’s opponent winds up agreeing with him:

One of the many reprehensible features of Washington is how companies climb into bed with government. They do this either because they want legislation to get undeserved wealth by screwing consumers or competitors, or they do it because they think they the government is going to do something bad to them and they hope to […]

Here are a few interesting links to keep you informed about the fiscal crisis in Greece. Richard Rahn has a nice comparison in the Washington Times of Poland’s good policy and Greece’s profligacy. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/18/poland-versus-greece/ Reuters has a story about some new reforms in Greece, including a very Orwellian proposal to track everyone’s purchases by banning […]

On the one-year anniversary of Obama’s stimulus scam, I appeared on the Fox Business Network to explain why squandering $800 billion was bad for the economy.

While admitting that spending restraint is the ideal approach, Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution asks whether a value-added tax (VAT) might be the most desirable of all realistic options for dealing with an unsustainable budget situation. Read his post for yourself, but I think a fair summary is that he is basically saying that a) there […]