The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is heavily subsidized by US taxpayers, but spends a lot of time pushing an agenda against taxpayer interests. Richard Billies recently did a good job recounting the OECD’s ongoing list of big government initiatives: …The organization is fundamentally a pro-big government bureaucracy that promotes all of the social welfare […]
read more...The burden of federal spending in the United States was down to 18.2 percent of gross domestic product when Bill Clinton left office. But this progress didn’t last long. Thanks to George Bush’s reckless spending policies, the federal budget grew about twice as fast as the economy, jumping by nearly 90 percent in just eight […]
read more...I like sequestration. Automatic budget cuts might not be the best way of reducing the burden of government spending, but a sequester is better than leaving the federal budget on autopilot. Particularly since the “cuts” are mostly just reductions in already-scheduled increases. The only exception, at least in the short run, is the defense budget. […]
read more...I almost feel sorry for the ideologues and partisan hacks who feel obliged to defends Obama’s miserable economic performance. Keynesian spending policies and class-warfare tax policies have produced dismal economic performance, with unemployment stuck above 8 percent – even though the White House promised the joblessness rate by this point would be about 5.5 percent […]
read more...What Do Greece, the United States, and the Cayman Islands Have in Common? At first, this seems like a trick question. After all, the Cayman Islands are a fiscal paradise, with no personal income tax, no corporate income tax, no capital gains tax, and no death tax. By contrast, Greece is a bankrupt, high-tax welfare […]
read more...Despite considerable rhetoric from politicians about cutting spending and reducing the size of government, there’s been little in the way of actual results. At best a few promise for future cuts have been secured, but we know what those are worth. A good measure of the seriousness, or lack thereof, with which Congress approaches cutting […]
read more...Over a week ago I predicted in an editorial that there would be continued attacks on financial privacy and tax competition, noting that attacks on Romney’s financial holdings were “part of this ongoing effort to undermine tax competition and make it easier for politicians to pursue onerous tax-and-spend policies.” I even singled out the Tax […]
read more...The mess in Europe has been rather frustrating, largely because almost everybody is on the wrong side. Some folks say they want “austerity,” but that’s largely a code word for higher taxes. They’re fighting against the people who say they want “growth,” but that’s generally a code word for more Keynesian spending. So you can […]
read more...I’ve run across very few good cartoons about Keynesian economics. If my aging memory is correct, I’ve only posted two of them. But at least they’re both very good. We have one involving Obama, sharks, and a lifeboat, and another one involving an overburdened jockey. Now we have a third cartoon to add to the […]
read more...I realize it’s a bold assertion, but the $100 million that American taxpayers send to Paris every year to subsidize the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is – on a per-dollar basis – the most destructively wasteful part in the federal budget. This video will give you some evidence. But the video also is […]
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