President Bush was a big spender, but President Obama is taking profligacy to the next level. In his first year in office, Obama pushed through a pork-filled “stimulus” that was supposed to increase jobs and prosperity (at least according to the discredited Keynesian…
Daily Analysis
Robert Samuelson’s Unintentional Case for Austrian Economics
In his Washington Post column discussing a crisis of confidence among economists, Robert Samuelson correctly notes that Keynesians don’t seem to have the right answers. But he concludes that other schools of thought are similarly befuddled by current…
IRS Hands Out Home Buyer Tax Credits to Prisoners
Dan Mitchell recently appeared on MSNBC to explain why we should not be surprised to learn that more than $9 million dollars in home buyer tax credits were given to prison inmates who were clearly not new home owners. This kind of waste is to be expected when…
Biden Told to "Just Lower Our Taxes"
Campaigning in Wisconsin, Vice President Biden met his match in a local small business owner. It doesn’t have quite the snappy ring of “Joe the Plumber,” but it will do. Earlier today Joe Biden was in Wisconsin, trying to help Russ Feingold salvage…
Canadian Boondoggles and Russia Is More Capitalist than the U.S. (Again)
The G-20 gab-fest is in Canada this weekend, but Canadian taxpayers are definitely not winners. In a display of waste that might even embarrass a French politician, the Canadian government somehow is going to squander $1 billion hosting the event. I can’t even…
The Tax Man Wants His Cut
As if the residents of the Gulf Coast haven’t had it hard enough, the IRS is moving in to make sure they get their cut of any payouts from BP. These government bureaucrats even have the chutzpah to pretend that their actions are benevolent and beneficial on the…
The G-20 Fiscal Fight: A Pox on Both Their Houses
Barack Obama and Angela Merkel are the two main characters in what is being portrayed as a fight between American “stimulus” and European “austerity” at the G-20 summit meeting in Canada. My immediate instinct is to cheer for the Europeans. After all, “austerity”…
European Central Bank President Wants to Exacerbate Continent’s Fiscal Crisis
It’s been amusing, in an I-told-you-so fashion, to follow the fiscal crises in Greece, Spain, and other European welfare states. And I feel like a voyeuristic ghoul as I observe the incredibly misguided bailout policies being adopted by the political elites (who are…
The U.K. Version of Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
As the chart below indicates, the United Kingdom has a large budget deficit solely because government spending has increased to record levels (OECD data). Unfortunately, the new Tory-Liberal coalition government has decided that taxpayers should be punished for all…
Top House Democrat Calls for Middle-Class Tax Hikes
I’ve frequently argued that the main purpose of “taxing the rich” is not to collect more revenue. Smart leftists, after all, understand that there are very strong Laffer Curve effects at the top of the income scale since investors and entrepreneurs have considerable…