What happens when you mix something good with something bad? To be more specific, what happens when you have a big success story, like the spending cap in Switzerland that has dramatically slowed the growth of government, and then expect intelligent and coherent…
Daily Analysis
America’s Most Clueless and Malicious Bureaucrats?
I’ve already suggested that subsidies for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are the most wasteful and counterproductive item in the federal budget. At least on a per-dollar-spent basis. But what about a similar exercise for…
Financial Bureaucrats on Easy Street, with Consumers and Taxpayers Paying the Bill
I’ve complained many times about government intervention in the financial sector. The financial and housing crisis, for instance, was largely a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policy, combined with the system of corrupt subsidies put in place by…
A New Member of the Moocher Hall of Fame
About one year ago, I decided to create a “Moocher Hall of Fame” to highlight how certain people went above and beyond the call of indolence in their efforts to sponge off taxpayers. This award isn’t for ordinary deadbeats. You have to do something really special (the…
More Obamacare Failure
If Obamacare is a success, as the White House and establishment media would like us to believe, then why is the Obama Administration so anxious to hide the numbers? After all, surely we haven’t set the bar so low that the Administration can claim victory simply…
Will Taxpayers Be Forced to Bail Out Union Pensions?
As a supporter of genuine capitalism, which means the right of contract and the absence of coercion, I don’t think there should be any policies that help or hinder unions. The government should simply be a neutral referee that enforces contracts and upholds the rule…
Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth from Washington?
Last year, I conducted an informal poll at a conference in Paris. I explained to the audience that the public sector consumed about 57 percent of the French economy and I asked them whether they got more services and better government than the people of Germany (where…
The Left’s Pro-Single Payer Health Care Graphic: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription
The new leftist website, Vox, has an article by Sarah Kliff on Vermont’s experiment with a single-payer healthcare system. But I don’t really have much to say about what’s happening in the Green Mountain State, other than to declare that I much prefer healthcare…
The Golden Rule of Spending Restraint
My tireless (and probably annoying) campaign to promote my Golden Rule of spending restraint is bearing fruit. The good folks at the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal allowed me to explain the fiscal and economic benefits that accrue when nations limit the…
Support the VAT…if You Oppose Entitlement Reform and Want More spending and More Debt
I’m a supporter of a single-rate tax regime, especially if there’s no double taxation of income that is saved and invested. That’s why I like the flat tax. But I’ve expressed concern about the national sales tax, even though it’s basically the same as a flat tax (the…