by Dan Mitchell | Feb 3, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Socialism
The economic disintegration of Venezuela is a powerful example how socialism fails. Even in a nation with massive oil wealth. This video from Reason tells the tragic story. I think long-run data is especially valuable when...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 25, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs
If asked to describe French economic policy, rational people will use phrases such as “big government” and “high taxes.” Or perhaps “dirigisme” and “bureaucracy.” And they would be correct. Here’s a chart from the OECD, showing spending burdens for major European...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 23, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I have relentlessly criticized Republicans in recent years for being profligate big spenders. But I have some good news. The GOP is finding religion and is once again fretting about big government. The bad news is that many of them are total...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 16, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs
I wrote a four-part series last year about coronavirus and big government (here, here, here, and here), so it goes without saying that the first two lines of this tweet deserve some sort of accuracy award for hitting the nail on the head. But the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 15, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Early last decade, when writing about Spain’s fiscal crisis, I pointed out that the country got in trouble for the same reason Greece got in trouble. Simply stated, government spending grew faster than the private economy. And when nations...
