Daily Analysis

Sensible Swiss Voters Crush Proposed Minimum Wage Mandate

I’m beginning to think that people from some nations are smarter and more rational than others. That may explain, for instance, why voters in Estonia support fiscal restraintwhile voters in France foolishly think the gravy train can continue forever. But I’m not…

The Economics of Creative Destruction

In the battle of ideas, supporters of capitalism and economic liberty sometimes face an uphill climb because of a perception of heartlessness. When companies get in trouble, we’re the mean people who don’t want to give bailouts. When workers are laid off, we’re the…

The Growing Threat of a Wealth Tax

Allister Heath, the superb economic writer from London, recently warned that governments are undermining incentives to save. And not just because of high tax rates and double taxation of savings. Allister says people are worried about outright confiscation resulting…

Greedy Politicians Get their Comeuppance as Taxpayers Escape

If you’re a regular reader, you already know I’m a big supporter of tax competition and tax havens. Here’s the premise: Politicians almost always are focused on their next election and this encourages them to pursue policies that are designed to maximize votes and…

A Decent but Underwhelming Jobs Report

The headlines from today’s employment report certainly seem positive. The unemployment rate has dropped to 6.3 percent and there are about 280,000 new jobs.* But if you dig into the details of the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you find some…

Ukraine’s Self-Imposed Statism Crisis

Using a comparison of Jamaica and Singapore, I recently argued that growth should trump inequality. Simply stated, a growing economic pie is much better for poor people that incentive-sapping redistribution programs that trap people in dependency. In other words,…

A Case Study of Why Growth Trumps Inequality

There’s a new book by French economist Thomas Piketty, called “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,”  that supposedly identifies the Achilles’ Heel of the market economy. Piketty argues that the rate of return to capital is higher than the economy-wide growth rate and…