While I mostly focus on bad government policy in the United States, I also think we can learn lessons from what’s happening in other nations. In some cases, I share positive stories, such as the success of privatized Social Security in Australia, nationwide school…
Daily Analysis
Copy Sweden or Greece? Learning from the Global Economic Experiment
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…
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…
Even the Establishment Media Is now Admitting the French Economic Model Is Fatally Flawed
Some things in life are very dependable. Every year, for instance, the swallows return to Capistrano. And you can also count on Dan Mitchell to wax poetic about the looming collapse of French statism. Back in 2011, I said France was engaged in economic…
Economic Growth Is the Best Way to Help the Poor, not Redistribution in Pursuit of Coerced Income Equality
Switzerland’s left-wing party has instigated a referendum for November 24 that asks voters to limit pay ranges so that a company wouldn’t be able to pay top employees more than 12 times what they’re paying their lowest-level employees. I talked with Neil Cavuto about…
The Moral Bankruptcy of the U.K.’s Faux Conservative Government
As an advocate of small government, I’m often distressed that I sometimes have to rely on Republicans in Washington to fight statism. Why am I distressed? Because some of the worst people in Washington are GOPers. They may give lip service to fiscal responsibility…
Even Scandinavian Welfare States Realize Too Much Dependency and Too Many Handouts Are Destructive
We’re making a tiny bit of progress in the battle against the welfare state. No, policy hasn’t changed yet, but at least there’s growing recognition that maybe, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to pay people not to work. Particularly when you trap them in lives of…
Even European Commission Bureaucrats Realize that Taxes Can Be Too High!
I’m not a big fan of the European Commission. For those not familiar with this entity, it’s sort of the European version of the executive-branch bureaucracy we have in Washington. And like their counterparts in Washington, the Brussels-based bureaucracy enjoys a very…
Europe’s Soft Bigotry of Low Economic Expectations
The United States is suffering through the weakest economic expansion since the Great Depression, which is a damning indictment of Obamanomics. But that doesn’t mean the United States has the world’s worst-performing economy. Japan’s statist economy has been mired in…
Americans Are Far More Compassionate than “Socially Conscious” Europeans
When I’m in Europe giving speeches and participating in conferences, it’s quite common that folks on the left will attempt to discredit my views by asserting that Americans are selfish and greedy. Since I’m generally sympathetic to Ayn Rand’s writings, I don’t see…