New evidence confirms what we already knew: that Laffer Curve effects reduce expected revenue gains from higher taxes.
Daily Analysis
The Irish Tax Policy Debate: Bono 1 – Irish Union Bosses 0
In the Irish tax policy debate, Bono knows better than bosses from the leading Irish labor union. Moreover, the U.S. could learn a lot from Ireland’s success with a pro-growth corporate tax policy.
Faced with Ebola Crisis, World Health Organization Decides to…Have a Moscow Conference to Push Global Tax Rules for Tobacco
The United Nations is not nearly as bad as other international bureaucracies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or the International Monetary Fund. But that’s because the U.N. tends to be completely ineffective. So even when the…
Bureaucrats at the United Nations Endorse Sweeping New Tax Powers for Politicians
I’m not a big fan of international bureaucracies. Regular readers know that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the worst institution from my perspective, followed by the International Monetary Fund. Some folks ask why the United Nations isn’t…
Obama Is Right about the European Economy…But Doesn’t Grasp the Implications
I’m not a big fan of Obamanomics. I don’t like the President’s class-warfare mentality on taxes. I don’t like his support for Keynesian spending policy. And I don’t like his costly expansions of government such as Obamacare. Indeed, I even like mocking his reflexive…
Led by North Carolina and Kansas, a Look at States Moving in the Right Direction
My colleagues Chris Edwards and Nicole Kaeding have just released the biannual Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors from the Cato Institute. The Report Card is on the Cato Institute’s most impressive publications sincedevelopments on the state level help…
Texas Is Booming…but CNN Doesn’t Want You to Know Why
Much of my writing is focused on the real-world impact of government policy, and this is why I repeatedly look at the relative economic performance of big government jurisdictions and small government jurisdictions. But I don’t just highlight differences between…
America’s Anti-Competitive and Anti-Comity International Tax System, Part I
Most of us will never be directly impacted by the international provisions of the internal revenue code. That’s bad news because it presumably means we don’t have a lot of money, but it’s good news because IRS policies regarding “foreign-source income” are a poisonous…
Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, which Nation and State Punish Success Most of All?
I’ve shared some interested rankings on tax policy, including a map from the Tax Foundation showing which states have the earliest and latest Tax Freedom Days. There’s also a depressing table showing that the United States “earns” a lowly 94th place in a ranking of…
The OECD’s Scheme to Raise Tax Burdens on Workers, Consumers, and Investors
People pay every single penny of tax that politicians impose on corporations. The investors that own companies obviously pay (more than one time!) when governments tax profits. The workers employed by companies obviously pay, both directly and indirectly, because of…