For quite some time, I’ve thought of Herman van Rompuy as the poster child of Europe’s incompetent political elite. Virtually unknown to people in the real world (his sole claim to fame is that a British MEP, in a speech that went viral on YouTube, said he resembled a “low-grade bank clerk”), the President of […]
read more...Regular readers know about Mitchell’s Golden Rule, which is the simple – but essential – notion that the burden of government spending shouldn’t grow faster than the private sector. Well, after reading this utterly depressing news about how the number of people riding in the wagon is growing faster than the number of people pulling […]
read more...With all the fiscal troubles in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and Italy, there’s not much attention being paid to Cyprus. But the Mediterranean island nation is a good case study illustrating the economic dangers of big government. For all intents and purposes, Cyprus is now bankrupt, and the only question that remains to be answered […]
read more...Back in 2010, I excoriated the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, noting that David Cameron was increasing tax rates and expanding the burden of government spending (including an increase in the capital gains tax!). I also criticized Cameron for leaving in place the 50 percent income tax rate imposed by his feckless predecessor, […]
read more...Back in April, I explained that I would accept a tax increase if “the net long-run effect is more freedom, liberty, and prosperity.” I even outlined several specific scenarios where that might occur, including giving the politicians more money in exchange for a flat tax or giving them additional revenue in exchange for real entitlement […]
read more...One of my very first blog posts was about the link between big government and big corruption. For the rest of my life, I can now cite the Obamacare travesty as an example. Here’s some of what Tim Carney wrote for the Washington Examiner. Chief Justice John Roberts’ judicial sleight of hand, transforming Obamacare’s mandate […]
read more...I’ve almost exhausted my interest in California’s suicidal fiscal policy. How many times, after all, can you write about politicians over-taxing and over-spending to the point of economic ruin? But everyone has a cross to bear in life, and (if you allow me to mix my metaphors) griping about bloated government is my Sisyphean task. […]
read more...In their never-ending efforts to buy votes with other people’s money (see the first cartoon in this post), politicians have been expanding the welfare state and creating more dependency. This is bad for the overall economy because it means a larger burden of government spending and it’s bad for poor people because it undermines their […]
read more...’m not a lawyer, or an expert on the Constitution, though I sometimes play one on TV. But I can read, and I’ll agree with my friends on the left that the federal government has a broad power to tax. I wish the 16th Amendment had never been ratified, but its language gives the federal […]
read more...Being a libertarian, I’m used to disappointment. So when something actually goes according to plan, I get very happy. On that basis, I should be utterly and deliriously overjoyed about my endorsement of Francois Hollande to be President of France. I wanted him to win, in part because he would engage in statist experiments that […]
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