When I give speeches around the country, I often get asked whether it’s time to give up. More specifically, has America reached a tipping point, with too many people riding in the wagon of government dependency and too few people creating wealth and pulling the wagon…
Daily Analysis
ABBA and the Story of the Most-Inane-Ever Tax Controversy
The tax code is a complicated nightmare, particularly for businesses. Some people may think this is because of multiple tax rates, which definitely is an issue for all the non-corporate businesses that file “Schedule C” forms using the personal income tax. A…
Goldilocks, Canada, and the Size of Government
I feel a bit like Goldilocks. No, this is not a confession about cross-dressing or being transsexual. I’m the boring kind of libertarian. Instead, I have a run-of-the-mill analogy. Think about when you were a kid and your parents told you the story of Goldilocks and…
A Single Picture to Show that Many Nations Are Economically Doomed
Over the years, I’ve shared many charts, graphs, and tables to help people understand that the welfare state is fundamentally unsustainable. And, assuming there’s not genuine entitlement reform, many of these fiscal estimates show that the United States has a very…
Crying About Obamacare
I asked back in September whether all the bad news about Obamacare meant it was time to feel sorry for President Obama and other statists. Some people apparently didn’t realize I was being sarcastic, so I got some negative feedback. I’ve since learned to be more…
A Primer on the Laffer Curve to Help Understand Why Obama’s Class-Warfare Tax Policy Won’t Work
My main goal for fiscal policy is shrinking the size and scope of the federal government and lowering the burden of government spending. But I’m also motivated by a desire for better tax policy, which means lower tax rates, less double taxation, and fewer corrupting…
Obamacare Liberating Americans From Productivity
It takes a special skill – or an abundance of chutzpah – to harm a person and then turn around and argue that it was all for their own good. But that’s exactly what the Obama administration, and the sycophants at the New York Times, are doing in…
Obama’s Dismal Legacy of European-Style Long-Run Unemployment
Looking at labor markets, my biggest concern is the drop in labor force participation. The data from the Labor Department on the employment-population ratio, for instance, suggest a permanent reduction in the share of the population that is working. And since economic…
Yet another Example of the Failure of Keynesian Economics
Early last year, with the sequester about to begin, President Obama stated that “these cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy, they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls.” He made this statement…
The Best State in America Is…?
What’s the best state in America? I’m not sure I can answer that broad question, but I can address the more narrow issue of which state has the most economic freedom. Last month, for instance, I shared some data from the Canada-based Fraser Institute which showed that…