by Dan Mitchell | Aug 21, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As illustrated by this chart, economists are lousy forecasters. To be more specific, economists are no better than fortune tellers when trying to make short-run macroeconomic forecasts. Heck, if we actually knew what was going to happen over the next 12 months, we’d...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 31, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
In an interview last week about Detroit’s bankruptcy, I explained that the city got in trouble because of growing dependency and an ever-rising burden of government spending. I also warned that the federal government faces the same challenge. Washington is in trouble...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 28, 2013 | Bailouts, Blogs, Europe
The European Union has basically made the right decision on how to deal with insolvent banks. Here are some details from the EU Observer. Bank shareholders and creditors will be first in line to suffer losses if their bank gets into difficulties, according to draft...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 15, 2013 | Bailouts, Blogs, Europe
Did Cyprus become an economic basket case because it is a tax haven, as some leftists have implied? Did it get in trouble because the government overspent, which I have suggested? The answers to those questions are “no” and “to some degree.” The real problem, as I...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 18, 2013 | Bailouts, Blogs, Europe
It doesn’t create a lot of confidence in Europe that tiny little Cyprus, with a GDP less than Vermont, is now causing immense turmoil. Though to be more accurate, events in Cyprus aren’t causing turmoil as much as they’re causing people to examine both government...