I recently posted favorable comments about a National Review article that made two important points about fiscal policy and supply-side economics. First, the article reminded “supply siders” that the burden of government spending is very important (and…
Daily Analysis
Portugal Digs Itself into a Deeper Hole with Tax Increases
I feel like a broken record when I write about European fiscal policy. In almost all cases, I cite OECD data showing that countries are in fiscal trouble because of excessive spending rather than inadequate tax revenue. I then show that the politicians are using the…
Should the United Nations Get to Tax the Internet, ATM Withdrawals, and Air Travel?
Here’s a very disturbing report from FoxNews.com about a scheme at the United Nations to impose global taxes. This has been a long-time dream of the bureaucrats, who (naturally) are exempt from paying tax themselves. Here’s a link to a report I wrote on a…
Looming Tax Hikes in the U.K. and Investors Act Accordingly.
As noted in this blog back in August, the end of Labour rule in the U.K. will not mean the end of big government in that country. The new coalition government has already proposed a large tax hike on capital gains: At present investors only pay CGT of 18pc on gains…
Say Goodbye to England
Okay, the title of this post is an absurd exaggeration, but I am not optimistic about the future of the United Kingdom. Government spending has exploded over the last ten-plus years (the largest expansion in the burden of government spending among developed nations),…
Left-Wing Columnists Says We Should Copy Greek Policies to Avoid a Greek-Style Fiscal Crisis
Only in the artificial bubble of Washington do you find people who are willing to make preposterous statements such as those contained in this David Ignatius column. He writes that we should adopt a value-added tax to avoid a Greek-style fiscal crisis, appararently…
Encouraging Polling Numbers
I realize that public opinion polls are quirky and that answers often depend on how questions are phrased. Nonetheless, these results seem very strong. As reported on the Bankrupting America website, there is more than three-to-one opposition against a value-added…
Capital Gains: Part Three.
The final paper in Stephen J. Entin of IRET’s three part series about the capital gains tax rate is entited, Revenue Estimation Of Capital Gains Needs Improvement, and as the title promises it explores the inacurate revenue estimates applied to potential changes…
The Next Step for Supply-Side Economics
Kevin Williamson has a long-overdue piece in National Review making two essential points about supply-side economics and the Laffer Curve. First, he explains that tax cuts are not the fiscal equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. Simply stated, too many Republicans…
Greece’s Problem Is High Tax Rates, not Tax Evasion
The New York Times has an article describing widespread tax evasion in Greece, along with an implication that the country’s fiscal crisis is largely the result of unpaid taxes and could be mostly solved if taxpayers were more obedient to the state. This is an…