There’s an article in the Wall Street Journal showing how already-established companies and their union allies will use the coercive power of government to thwart competition. The article specifically discusses efforts by less competitive supermarkets to block…
Daily Analysis
You Don't Need to Waste More Money to Shrink Government.
It’s rather symbolic of what’s wrong with Washington that a commission ostensibly created to promote deficit reduction is seeking a bigger budget, as noted in the Tax Notes story excerpted below. Rather than impose a bigger burden on taxpayers, though, I…
Obamacare Kills a Company and Puts 50 More People on the Unemployment Rolls.
In the real world, government policies that raise the cost of doing business often lead to crippling – and sometimes even fatal – results. Here’s a story, which I saw via Instapundit and Megan McArdle, about an insurance company that is closing its…
Will Higher Tax Rates in 2011 Cause an Economic Collapse?
Art Laffer has a compelling column in the Wall Street Journal, where he makes the case that future tax rate increases will cause considerable economic damage because people have an incentive to maximize income this year to take advantage of current tax rates –…
Taxpayers vs. Bureaucrats, Part XXIX
This story from Philadelphia, which I saw on Reason’s Hit and Run blog, is one of the worst examples I’ve ever seen of government bureaucrats bilking taxpayers. The City Manager, who already receives an absurdly extravagent salary and hasn’t even…
Dan Mitchell Gets Results
I gave a speech in Hungary about two weeks ago and now the government has announced a big step in the direction of better fiscal policy. According to Reuters, “Hungary’s new government plans to introduce a flat personal income tax of 16 percent from 2011,…
Brazil’s President Is Wiser than Obama
Every so often, perhaps inadvertently, a collectivist says something very smart. In the case of Lula da Silva, Brazil’s socialist president, he made the common-sense observation that you can’t redistribute without first producing. He didn’t quite realize what he was…
Europe's Greedy Politicians Resent Switzerland's Pro-Growth Tax Policy
This story from Business Week warmed my heart. Switzerland’s cantons are competing to create better tax policy, and this is attracting companies seeking to escape the kleptocracies elsewhere in Europe. This shows the value of tax competition (imagine how bad…
America Falling Behind Thanks to Obama (and Bush).
For the past 15 years, America has been ranked as the world’s most competitive economy according to the Swiss-based IMD World Competitiveness Center. In the 2010 report that was recently released, the United States fell to number three, trailing Hong Kong and…
Governor Christie Is a Taxpayer Hero
I may as well confess that I have a man-crush on Governor Christie. It’s not nearly as bad as Andrew Sullivan’s fixation on Obama (and it certainly hasn’t involved me changing my views), but this video and the excerpt below are two examples of a…