I wrote a celebratory post last November about the dramatic difference between Americans and Europeans. There truly is American exceptionalism in that Europeans are much more likely to think it is government’s responsibility to provide the basics of life. Another poll…
Daily Analysis
Another Dismal Assessment of Obamanomics: United States Drops to 7th in WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index
Every year, I look forward to the annual releases of both Economic Freedom of the World and the Index of Economic Freedom. With their comprehensive rankings, these two publications enable interested parties to compare nations and see which countries are moving in the…
Study from German Economists Shows that Tax Competition and Fiscal Decentralization Limit Income Redistribution
If we want to avoid the kind of Greek-style fiscal collapse implied by this BIS and OECD data, we need some external force to limit the tendency of politicians to over-tax and over-spend. That’s why I’m a big advocate of tax competition, fiscal sovereignty, and…
With Unemployment Already High, Why Are Leftists Pushing for an Increase in the Minimum Wage?
The unemployment rate has been stuck above 8 percent ever since Obama pushed through his ill-fated stimulus scheme to increase the burden of government spending. This high level of joblessness presumably reduces Obama’s chances of getting reelected, so you would think…
Fed Critics Should Worry About More Than Easy Money and Inflation
If people are criticizing the Federal Reserve, it’s overwhelmingly likely that they are focused on the central bank’s poor conduct of monetary policy. And there’s plenty to criticize, as documented in this video featuring Professor George Selgin. I also have a video,…
Almost All Nations Are Heading for Collapse, but Greece Is Special (in a Bad Way)
I wrote yesterday that the United Kingdom is doomed because there isn’t a political party with the vision or courage to restrain the welfare state. At various points, I’ve also expressed pessimism about the future of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and even…
Spending Cuts and Tax Cuts Should Be an All-of-the-Above Option, Not an Either-Or Choice
I’m in Slovenia where I just finished indoctrinating educating a bunch of students on the importance of Mitchell’s Golden Rule as a means of restraining the burden of government spending. And I emphasized that the fiscal problem in Europe is the size of government,…
A Miserable and Hopeless Fiscal Outlook for the United Kingdom
If you live in America and believe in free markets and small government, it’s easy to get depressed. We suffered through eight years of wasteful spending and misguided intervention under Bush, and now we’re enduring four years of additional spending and red tape under…
America’s Corporate Tax Rate is So Punitive that Companies Are Even Moving to Welfare States Like the U.K. to Be More Competitive
I was a bit surprised couple of years ago to read that an American company re-located to Canada to benefit from better tax policy. But I wasn’t totally shocked by the news because Canada has been lowering tax rates, reducing the burden of government spending, and…
Romney is Right that You Can Lower Tax Rates and Reduce Tax Preferences without Hurting the Middle Class
Even though I’m not a Romney fan, I sometimes feel compelled to defend him against leftist demagoguery. But instead of writing about tax havens, as I’ve done in the past, today we’re going to look at incremental tax reform. The left has been loudly asserting that the…