I’ve shared many charts over the years, but two of the most compelling ones deal with poverty. The numbers in this chart, which are based on Census Bureau data and scholarly studies (see here, here, here, and here), show that the poverty rate was steadily…
Daily Analysis
Washington’s Over-Compensated Shadow Bureaucracy and the Real Income-Inequality Problem
One of my most widely read – but also most depressing – articles was from about two years ago and it exposed the fact that Washington, DC, is now the nation’s richest region. I explained that Washington is rich because of unearned wealth. Almost all of the loot that…
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…
In the OECD’s Fantasy World, Higher Business Taxes and more Government Spending Are Good for Growth
Over the years, I’ve shared some ridiculous arguments from our leftist friends. Paul Krugman, for instance, actually wrote that “scare stories” about government-run healthcare in the United Kingdom “are false.” Which means I get to recycle that absurd quote every time…
Government-Run Social Security Is Bad News for Blacks and other Minorities
America desperately needs genuine entitlement reform to avoid a Greek-style fiscal future. The biggest problems are the health entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, but Social Security also has a huge long-run fiscal shortfall. That’s why I’m a big…
TARP Was Bad, but the Looming Obamacare Bailout for Corrupt Insurance Companies Could Be Worse
I hate to dredge up bad memories so early in a new year, but we need to remind ourselves of the awful TARP bailout of 2008. Our financial system had gone out of whack because of bad monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and unsustainable housing subsidies from…
Boost Worker Pay – and Make the United States More Competitive – by Gutting the Corporate Income Tax
The business pages are reporting that Chrysler will be fully owned by Fiat after that Italian company buys up remaining shares. I don’t know what this means about the long-term viability of Chrysler, but we can say with great confidence that the company will be better…
Happy Crony New Year
Let’s start 2014 with a depressing story about the reprehensible way in which big companies get in bed with big government. If asked to list the example of cronyism that I find most nauseating, the Export-Import Bank would be at the top of my list. The Obamacare…
The Best and Worst Policy Developments of 2013
One year ago, I looked at the worst policy developments of 2012. I had some very good (or should I say bad?) options for that award, including the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision, the IRS’s lawless decision to make American banks act as tax collectors for foreign…
You Be the Judge: When Should Government Be Allowed to Take Your Children?
As part of my “You Be the Judge” series, I periodically share stories that presumably create moral quandaries for libertarians and other advocates of limited government and individual liberty. Though I’ve been lax in this regard since my last iteration in the series…