I’ve done a couple of posts comparing Reaganomics and Obamanomics, mostly based on data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve on employment and economic output. I even did a TV interview on the subject, which generated some comments on my taste in clothing, and also…
Daily Analysis
Reagan Schools Obama
Last year, I did a popular post on what happens if you redistribute grades in a classroom. Someone has turned this idea into a video, starring some well-known political figures. And if you want to see a real-world example of how students react to this idea, here’s…
World Bank Study Shows How Anti-Money Laundering Rules Hurt the Poor
I’ve complained many times about the pointless nature of anti-money laundering laws. They impose very high costs and force banks to spy on their customers, but they are utterly ineffective as a weapon against criminal activity. Yet politicians and bureaucrats keep…
Explaining in the New York Post Why Obama’s Soak-the-Rich Tax Policy Is Doomed to Failure
I think high tax rates on certain classes of citizens are immoral and discriminatory. If the government is going to collect revenue, all taxpayers should be treated equally, with something akin to a simple flat tax. But most people don’t seem to care about having the…
International Taxes Threaten Fiscal Sovereignty
Politicians are always looking for ways to increase their power and exert ever more authority over greater swaths of humanity. Generally speaking, the world system of nation-states at least keeps to a minimum the number of politicians capable of pushing their views on…
Tax Day is Again Upon Us
It’s almost that dreaded time of year again: Tax Day. As if reaching deep into our wallets to fund profligate government spending isn’t bad enough, Americans also bear a tremendous hidden cost just to comply with the tax code. At over 3.8 million words,…
Professor Greg Mankiw: If You Value Individual Liberty, then Protect, Promote, and Preserve Competition Between Governments
Other than my experiment dealing with corporate taxation, the first video I narrated for the Center for Freedom and Prosperity dealt with the issue of tax competition. It was a deliberate choice because I view competition among governments as one of the few effective…
Time to Follow Sweden’s Lead on Fiscal Policy
Sweden has a very large and expensive welfare state, but it’s actually becoming a bit of a role model for economic reform. I’ve already commented on the country’s impressive school choice system and noted that the Swedes have partially privatized their Social Security…
The Right Capital Gains Tax Rate Is Zero
The silly debate about the “Buffett Rule” is really an argument about the extent to which there should be more double taxation of income that is saved and invested. Politicians conveniently forget that dividends and capital gains get hit by the corporate income tax….
Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
A problem in Washington is that people who specialize in particular fields are tempted to exaggerate the importance of their issues. To cite a couple of examples: People who work on monetary policy think their issue is most important, and you can understand why after…