by Dan Mitchell | May 12, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve written several times about the “Austrian School” of economics, but I’ve never written about the economics of Austria. Since I just spoke in Vienna on the topic of that nation’s fiscal policy, this is a good opportunity to make up for the lack of...
by Dan Mitchell | May 9, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
I’m currently in Finland for meetings with various people and I learned that the country’s bloated public sector and expensive welfare state are imposing a very heavy cost on the economy. How heavy of a cost? According to IMF data, there’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Time for another edition of my series on “Fiscal Fights with Friends,” where I debunk supposed conservatives who advocate for statist policies. Today’s topic is tax increases, an issue that I’ve had to address before (examples can be found here, here,...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 7, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Waste
There are many strains of libertarians (ranging from left-libertarians to anarcho-capitalists), but I feel safe in stating that they all are skeptical of foreign aid. At the risk of oversimplifying, there are two reasons for the skepticism. Libertarians...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 25, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
Last decade, three things made me optimistic about the United Kingdom. A lengthy period of spending restraint from 2010-2019. Voters chose in 2016 to escape the European Union. Boris Johnson was elected to deliver Brexit in 2019. Sadly, I was hopelessly naive. I...