by Dan Mitchell | Jul 28, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
There are all sorts of ways to measure the burden of government spending. The most obvious approach is to look at the share of economic output consumed by the public sector. That’s what I did, for instance, when comparing fiscal policy in France and Switzerland. And...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 27, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
About two weeks ago, while making an important point about the Laffer Curve, here’s what I wrote about the fiscal disaster in Detroit. Detroit’s problems are the completely predictable result of excessive government. Just as statism explains the problems of Greece....
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 21, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Laffer Curve, Taxation
The budget deficit this year is projected to be significantly smaller than it has been in recent years and some of our statist friends claim that this shows the desirability and effectiveness of higher taxes. I’m not persuaded, mostly because our big long-run fiscal...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 16, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
I sometimes make fun of Republicans for being the “Stupid Party,” but I get genuinely agitated when they’re the “Statist Party.” You can forgive someone for not being intelligent, after all, but it’s much harder to look the other way when they deliberately and...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 15, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I damned Obama with faint praise last year by asserting that he would never be able to make America as statist as France. My main point was to explain that the French people, notwithstanding their many positive attributes, seem hopelessly statist. At least that’s how...
