President Obama recently got himself in a bit of hot water with his “you didn’t build that” remark, which trivialized the hard work of entrepreneurs. But he is right – in a perverse way – about government playing a big role in the life of small businesses. Thanks to a…
Daily Analysis
Shame on the Associated Press for Sloppy and/or Biased Reporting about Poverty
In a recent post about Brian Ross and the despicable behavior of ABC News, I included examples of what I categorized as deliberate and accidental media bias. Here’s a good (or perhaps I should say bad) example of accidental bias, demonstrating how statist premises get…
Should Politicians Get a New Tax Without First Abolishing an Existing Tax?
I’ve explained before that I’m skeptical of the Fair Tax, hostile to the value-added tax, and opposed to other forms of a national sales tax for the simple reason that I don’t trust politicians to get rid of the income tax. Indeed, I fully suspect that the crowd in…
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…
Ambassador John Bolton Explains Need to Block Back-Door Gun Control Scheme from the United Nations
I’m not a big fan of the United Nations and I’m not a supporter of gun control, so you can imagine how agitated I get when two bad things are combined together. And that’s exactly what’s happening with a new anti-gun treaty being concocted by the United Nations. John…
What Obama and the New York Times Don’t Understand about Worldwide Taxation
Mitt Romney is being criticized for supporting “territorial taxation,” which is the common-sense notion that each nation gets to control the taxation of economic activity inside its borders. While promoting his own class-warfare agenda, President Obama recently…
Europe’s Crisis Is Because of Too Much Government, Not the Euro Currency
The mess in Europe has been rather frustrating, largely because almost everybody is on the wrong side. Some folks say they want “austerity,” but that’s largely a code word for higher taxes. They’re fighting against the people who say they want “growth,” but that’s…
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…
The Turbo-Charged Italian Version of the Laffer Curve
Thanks largely to the Laffer Curve, there are some impressive examples of failed tax increases in countries such as the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. But if there was a prize for the people who most vociferously resist turning over more of their…