While theory is important, I suspect most people are more likely to be convinced by real-world evidence. This is why I frequently compare nations when arguing that free markets and small government are the best way of generating prosperity. Simply stated, I want…
Daily Analysis
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…
America Should Copy Europe…if the Goal Is Stagnation and Lower Living Standards
I periodically (some would say over and over and over again, though occasionally made more palatable by using humor and cartoons) warn that the United States should not become a European-style welfare state. But I wonder whether I spend enough time explaining why this…
Bragging about the Debt Brake…but Failing to Explain What Makes It Successful
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…
Statists Propose to Punish Success as Inequality Fix
Thomas Picketty has received a lot of attention for his attack on capitalism. His new book Capital in the Twenty-first Century has breathed new life into old Marxist critiques of capitalism, and been elevated to the status of very important book by the designated…