In large part because of an excessive burden of government, the American economy is suffering European-style stagnation, with even the Washington Post now confessing that growth far below the long-run trend. This helps explain why job creation has been so dismal in…
Daily Analysis
How the Welfare State Traps the Poor in Dependency, the British Version
Back in 2011, I linked to a simple chart that illustrated how handouts and subsidies create very high implicit marginal tax rates for low-income people and explained how “generosity” from the government leads to a tar-paper effect that limits upward mobility. Earlier…
What’s the Best Response When Crony Capitalists From Big Business Endorse Higher Taxes on Their Small Business Competitors?
I’m a big fan of lower corporate tax rates. I also want to eliminate worldwide taxation so American companies can be on a level playing field when competing for market share around the world. And I want to get rid of the double taxation of dividends and capital gains…
Time to Get Rid of Tax Preferences for Housing in the Internal Revenue Code
Even though I knew some people would call me Scrooge, I wrote a few days ago about why we should get rid of the tax deduction for charitable contributions in exchange for lower tax rates. Simply stated, I’m a big advocate of fundamental tax reform, and I would like to…
A Swiss-Style Spending Cap Would Have Prevented the Current Fiscal Mess in America
I greatly admire Switzerland’s “debt brake” because it’s really a spending cap. Politicians are not allowed to increase spending faster than average revenue growth over a multi-year period, which basically means spending can only grow at the rate of inflation plus…
Everything that’s Wrong with the Tax System, in a Single Picture
I used to think this image was a damning indictment of the internal revenue code. Or here’s another chart showing how the tax system has become more convoluted over time. But this new image may be the most effective of all of them. We don’t know what’s in the other…
Portugal May Become the First of Europe’s Bankrupt Welfare States to Stumble upon a Genuine Recovery Formula: Less Spending AND Lower Tax Rates
There aren’t many fiscal policy role models in Europe. Switzerland surely is at the top of the list. The burden of government spending is modest by European standards, in part because of a very good spending cap that prevents politicians from overspending when…
Gerard Depardieu Meets John Galt
Another Frenchman has “gone Galt.” First, it was France’s richest entrepreneur. Now, it’s the nation’s most famous actor. Gerard Depardieu has officially announced – in a letter to France’s thuggish Prime Minister – that he is tired of paying 85 percent of his income…
We Need More Growth and Prosperity to Boost Charitable Contributions, not Bribery in the Tax Code
I’m a strong believer in fundamental tax reform. We need a system like the flat tax to improve economic performance. No tax system is good for growth, of course, but the negative impact of taxation can be reduced by lowering marginal tax rate(s), eliminating double…
New Evidence Shows States with No Income Tax Grow Faster and Create More Jobs
One of the key ways of controlling state and local tax burdens, according to this map from the Tax Foundation, is to not have an income tax. But that’s not too surprising. States have just a couple of ways of generating significant tax revenue, so it stands to reason…