by Dan Mitchell | Apr 19, 2016 | Blogs, Taxation
It’s that time of year. Those of us who wait until the last minute are rushing to get tax returns filed (or extensions submitted). So it’s also a good time to remind ourselves that there is a better way. Economists look at the tax system and focus on the warts that...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 18, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Free Market
Since Pope Francis is very critical of capitalism, I suppose it’s fitting that he had a special meeting with America’s crazy-Uncle-in-the-attic, Bernie Sanders. With my sixth-grade sense of humor, I confess that my initial instinct (perhaps motivated by the famous...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 17, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Maybe future events will require a reassessment, but right now the biggest danger to the western world isn’t terrorism. Nor is it climate change. Or Zika. Or even Donald Trump. The real threat is demographic change. America’s population profile already has changed,...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As I’ve repeatedly explained, governments generally get in fiscal trouble because politicians can’t resist spending lots of money when the economy is buoyant and therefore generating lots of tax revenue. And this is why I’m a huge fan of spending caps. If outlays...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 15, 2016 | Blogs, Crime, Society
I recently wrote about gun control, noting how there’s less murder in demographically similar U.S. states than there is in matching Canadian provinces. This is one of the reasons why I’m optimistic about protecting the Second Amendment. The empirical evidence is so...
