Are there any fact checkers at the New York Times? Since they’ve allowed some glaring mistakes by Paul Krugman (see here and here), I guess the answer is no. But some mistakes are worse than others. Consider a recent column by David Stuckler of Oxford and Sanjay Basu…
Daily Analysis
Tax and Expenditure Limits: The Challenge of Turning Mitchell’s Golden Rule from Theory into Reality
The main goal of fiscal policy should be to shrink the burden of government spending as a share of economic output. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve this modest goal. All that’s required is to make sure the private sector grows faster than the…
Going Galt: More Americans Vote with their Feet against Obama
I’ve written many times about how investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners and other successful people migrate from high-tax states to low-tax states. Well, the same thing happens internationally, as France’s greedy politicians are now learning. It’s a lot…
Following in Geithner’s Footsteps, Treasury Secretary Lew Urges Bad Fiscal Policy in other Nations
Political insiders remember Tim Geithner for his role in promoting the bailout culture and crony capitalism in Washington. Comedians remember him for the laughable hypocrisy of urging higher taxes for others while cheating on his own tax return. But I mostly think of…
The Obama Jobs Record: Some Good News, but Only if the Bar Is Lowered
The most recent jobs report from the Labor Department contains both good news and the bad news. If you’re a glass-half-full person, you’ll want to focus on some positive trends. The joblessness rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since Obama became President….
An Amazing Story of Economic Success
I’ve written before about the remarkable vitality of Hong Kong and Singapore, two jurisdictions that deserve praise for small government and free markets. I have also praised Switzerland because of policies such as genuine federalism and financial privacy, and it goes…
How Bureaucrats and Politicians Conspire to Rip Off Taxpayers
I can say with great confidence that government bureaucrats are overpaid compared to people in the productive sector of the economy. Why am I sure that this is true, particularly when the so-called Federal Salary Council claims bureaucrats are underpaid? For the…
Where Are the European Spending Cuts?
Paul Krugman recently tried to declare victory for Keynesian economics over so-called austerity, but all he really accomplished was to show that tax-financed government spending is bad for prosperity. More specifically, he presented a decent case against the…
Krugton the Invincible…or Krugman the Inadvertent Opponent of Tax Increases?
President Bush imposed a so-called stimulus plan in 2008 and President Obama imposed an even bigger “stimulus” in 2009. Based upon the economy’s performance over the past five-plus years, those plans didn’t work. Japan has spent the past 20-plus years imposing one…
Are there any Lessons to Be Learned from the Rogoff-Reinhart Kerfuffle?
For those who haven’t followed this issue, Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart wrote an influential paper in 2010 arguing that government debt above 90 percent of GDP was associated with weaker economic performance. It turns out that the Rogoff and Reinhart made a…