I’m not a big fan of international bureaucracies, particularly the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD, funded by American tax dollars, has become infamous for its support of statist pro-Obama policies. The OECD has allied…
Daily Analysis
The New Assault on Financial Freedom
Over a week ago I predicted in an editorial that there would be continued attacks on financial privacy and tax competition, noting that attacks on Romney’s financial holdings were “part of this ongoing effort to undermine tax competition and make it easier…
Thank the Private Sector for the Internet, not Government
As part of his campaign to expand the size and scope of the federal government (and to justify his advocacy of class-warfare taxation), President Obama has been asserting that all of us benefit from government spending. It’s why he now echoes Elizabeth Warren’s claim…
Thanks to Pro-Free Market Reforms, Chile Is the Latin Tiger
One of the reasons why this blog is called International Liberty is that the world is a laboratory, with some nations (such as France) showing why statism is a mistake, other jurisdictions (such as Hong Kong) showing that freedom is a key to prosperity, and other…
In Tallinn, Helping to Protect the People of Estonia from Krugmanomics
Last month, I exposed some major errors that Paul Krugman committed when he criticized Estonia for restraining the burden of government spending. My analysis will be helpful since I am now in Estonia for a speech about economic reform, and I wrote a column that was…
The Moral Case for Free Enterprise
A couple of months ago, I discussed a column by Arthur Brooks, in which he explained that libertarians and conservatives need to make a moral argument for capitalism and not just rely on statistics and economic analysis. This is correct, I believe, and I cited myself…
So-Called Paycheck Fairness Act Would Allow Government to Second-Guess Private Markets
Back in 2010, I cited the superb work of Christina Hoff Summers as she explained that we should let markets determine wages rather than giving that power to a bunch of bean-counting bureaucrats. She wrote that article because leftists at the time were pushing a…
In the Lake Wobegon Fantasy World, all Investments Make Money
I sometimes wonder whether journalists have the slightest idea of how capitalism works. In recent weeks, we’ve seen breathless reporting on the $2 billion loss at JP Morgan Chase, and now there’s a big kerfuffle about the falling value of Facebook stock. In response…
The Moral Case for Capitalism and Small Government
We know that the United States and most other developed nations are in deep trouble if we leave government policy on auto-pilot. And we know the painful day of reckoning will arrive even faster if we continue the Bush-Obama policies of expanding the burden of the…
Time to Follow Sweden’s Lead on Fiscal Policy
Sweden has a very large and expensive welfare state, but it’s actually becoming a bit of a role model for economic reform. I’ve already commented on the country’s impressive school choice system and noted that the Swedes have partially privatized their Social Security…