by Dan Mitchell | Jan 23, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Because I don’t like their plans for a value-added tax, some people seem to think that I am politically opposed to Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. That’s not true. Both Senators are generally strong proponents of free markets and limited government, so the fact that they have...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 22, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs
Remember the cluster-you-know-what in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina? Corrupt and incompetent politicians in both the city and at the state level acted passively, assuming that Uncle Sam somehow should be responsible for dealing with the storm. And we’ve seen...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 21, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
This isn’t intentional, but there’s been a European theme to this week’s posts. I wrote yesterday about economic chaos in France, and the previous day I wrote about the grim consequences of Italian statism. Today, we’re going to look at Greece. In the past, I’ve...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 20, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When I wrote back in 2012 that France was committing fiscal suicide, I should have guessed that President Hollande would get impatient and push for even more statism. Sure enough, the BBC reports that France’s President has a new plan. The ostensible goal is to reduce...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 19, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs
George Santayana was certainly was right when he wrote, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Consider, for instance, the foolish American politicians who want to rejuvenate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other forms of housing subsidies even...