bout a year ago, I spoke at a conference in Europe that attracted a lot of very rich people from all over the continent, as well as a lot of people who manage money for high-net-worth individuals. What made this conference remarkable was not the presentations, though they were generally quite interesting. The stunning part […]

I’ve done a video on excessive compensation for bureaucrats and I’ve written many times about wasteful spending, but here’s a cartoon that manages to effectively combine both concepts. If your eyes are getting old like mine, you may need to click on the image to read everything. This cartoon is good, but here’s another that […]

Since I’ve written before about Canada’s remarkable period of fiscal restraint during the 1990s, I am very pleased to see that the establishment press is finally giving some attention to what our northern neighbors did to reduce the burden of government spending. Here are some key passages from a Reuters story. “Everyone wants to know […]

This is probably my favorite political cartoon, and this one is the most-viewed post in the history of this blog, but here’s one probably should be near the top because it so perfectly captures the mindset of the political class. Though if you want to teach economics, here are good cartoons about incentives, Keynesian economics, […]

Some people have asked why I’m so agitated about the possibility that Republicans may acquiesce to tax increases as part of the Supercommittee negotiations. Rather than get into a lengthy discourse about the proper role of the federal government or an analysis of how the Bush-Obama spending binge worsened America’s fiscal situation, I think this […]

What would you do if you saw somebody standing at the top of a skyscraper, about to jump? Would you avert your eyes in horror? Would you watch in dismay as they plummeted to the ground? These are similar to the thoughts that are going through my mind as I watch Republicans begin the process […]