by Dan Mitchell | Oct 19, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Just yesterday, I proposed a “Golden Rule” for fiscal policy, based on the simple notion that the burden of government spending should grow slower than the private sector. And regular readers know about my narcissistic attempt to publicize “Mitchell’s Law” as a way of...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 18, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Sounds like the beginning of a joke, sort of like, “A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar…” But I have a serious point to make. I’m currently in Anguilla (yes, this is just one of the sacrifices I make in the fight for liberty), where I just gave a speech...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 17, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
The welfare states of Europe are in deep trouble. Decades of over-taxing and over-spending have sapped economic vitality and produced high levels of debt. The high debt levels, by themselves, might not be a problem if European governments implemented good policy....
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 10, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
The budget fights this year began with the “shutdown” battle, followed by the Ryan budget and then the debt limit. These fights have mostly led to uninspiring kiss-your-sister outcomes, which is hardly surprising given divided government. Now the crowd in DC is...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 6, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
I’ve posted several times about the dangers of creating too much government dependency, including a set of cartoons that illustrates how small welfare states inevitably erode social capital and create big welfare states. So you will understand that I am utterly...