Peter Dunn, warning of the many issues with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, has written a great article at American Thinker called “FATCA: A Ticking Time Bomb for the Economy.” Lawmakers clearly need to reconsider the law and its accompanying…
Daily Analysis
In Defense of “Trickle-Down” Economics
Back in September, I posted a flowchart showing how the current tax system is biased against saving and investment. Simply stated, the federal government largely leaves you unmolested if you consume your after-tax income, but there are as many as four extra layers of…
The Wrong Kind of Entitlement Reform Could Be Worse than No Entitlement Reform
I have a new article for National Review about the fallout from the Supercommittee. Among the points I make are: o We were lucky to dodge a tax hike. o There’s still a threat of a tax hike if big-government Republicans side with the so-called rational left in favor of…
What’s the Solution to Europe’s Fiscal Crisis: Spending Cuts, or Bailouts and Easy Money?
In hopes of stopping investor panic about Europe’s fiscal crisis, the world’s major central banks just announced that they will do whatever is needed to ensure financial markets don’t freeze up. This could be an appropriate and relatively benign use of the…
The Less-than-Thrilled Case for Extending the Payroll Tax Holiday
When I think about taxes, my first instinct is to rip up the corrupt internal revenue code and implement a simple and fair flat tax. When I think about Social Security, my first instinct is to copy dozens of other nations and implement personal retirement accounts….
Bureaucrats Gone Wild
This narrator probably won’t get rich, like the guy who did the “Girls Gone Wild” videos, but this is the second-best video I’ve ever seen on the bloated and overpaid government workforce. I especially like how he understands that the problem is the size of…
Notwithstanding Media Coverage of Black Friday, Consumer Spending Does Not Drive Economy
By fighting for freedom in Washington, I’ve condemned myself to a life of frustration and aggravation. One of my many pet peeves is that so many people in DC believe that economic growth depends on consumer spending. Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote the…
Everything You Need to Know about Entitlement Reform
Most people have a vague understanding that America has a huge long-run fiscal problem. They’re right, though they probably don’t realize the seriousness of that looming crisis. Here’s what you need to know: America’s fiscal crisis is actually a spending crisis, and…
European Economic Crisis Highlights an Increasingly Important Reason to Oppose Gun Control
bout a year ago, I spoke at a conference in Europe that attracted a lot of very rich people from all over the continent, as well as a lot of people who manage money for high-net-worth individuals. What made this conference remarkable was not the presentations, though…
Despicable and Corrupt Republicans Vote for More Housing Subsidies
Remember my post from a week ago when I said I was not a Republican even though Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge are two of my heroes? Well, now I have another reason to despise the GOP. Those reprehensible statists just voted to expand federal housing subsidies….