I routinely (some would say repetitively) argue that the burden of government spending is a drag on the economy because labor and capital are being misallocated via the political process. My message is that we need to reduce the size of the public sector, even if we…
Daily Analysis
CF&P Joins Coalition Warning Against Reversing Sequester Cuts
Last week the Center for Freedom & Prosperity joined with the National Taxpayers Union and 17 other groups to warn Republican leaders against making the mistake of undoing the sequester cuts. The letter notes: The BCA established limits on discretionary spending…
The Continuing Obamacare Disaster
You know things are going poorly for the Obama White House when even the New York Times is writing about the “third world experience” of Obamacare. Heck, it’s almost gotten to the point where I feel sorry for the President. But I guess I must be a mean-spirited…
Taxpayers Will Lose the Battle of the Energy Cronies
Government mandates benefit the politically connected, not consumers.
The European Crisis (and American Future?) of Too Many Over-Compensated Bureaucrats
The only sustainable way of achieving more prosperity and higher living standards is to increase the quality and quantity of labor and capital in the economy. This may sound like boring econo-speak, but labor and capital are the two “factors of production” and our…
Obamanomics and the Vanishing American Worker
The Department of Labor has issued its monthly employment report and the item that will attract the most attention is that the unemployment rate marginally increased to 7.3 percent. That number is worthy of some attention, but I think it distracts attention from a far…
New York City Is About to Become New France
We know that countries suffer when taxes get too high, in part because investors, entrepreneurs, and other successful taxpayers escape to jurisdiction with less oppressive fiscal regimes. France is a glaring example. On steroids. We know that states also suffer when…
Obama Advocates Higher Unemployment for Lower-Skilled Workers (and Some Great Election News from Colorado)
Perhaps because he wants to divert attention from the slow-motion train wreck of Obamacare, the President is signaling that he will renew his efforts to throw more people into the unemployment line. Needless to say, that’s not how the White House would describe the…
The Most Important Election of 2013
There’s an off-year election today in the United States. There are no contests for the White House or Congress, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any important choices being made. I say that notwithstanding the fact that the big races between politicians at the state…
Iceland, Switzerland, and the Golden Rule of Fiscal Policy
Being a glass-half-full kind of guy, I look for kernels of good news when examining economic policy around the world. I once even managed to find something to praise about French tax policy. And I can assure you that’s not a very easy task. I particularly try to find…