by Dan Mitchell | Dec 22, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Here are a few predictions for next year. It will be hot in Dallas in July, it will be cold in Stockholm in February, and Governor Jerry Brown of California will ask Uncle Sam for some sort of bailout. I’m actually not sure about the first two predictions, but I think...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 13, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs
There is a famous statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller, who was imprisoned by Hitler’s National Socialist regime and barely survived the concentration camps. They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 5, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Government Waste
I’ve avoided this topic in recent weeks because it’s too depressing, but this story is too outrageous to ignore. The County of Los Angeles has 199 bureaucrats who “earned” more than $250,000 last year. According to Census Bureau data for 2008, the median household...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 22, 2010 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
I ran across two interesting lists showing how politicians at the state and local level are often just as bad as the ones in Washington, DC. First, Forbes has an article identifying the 10 states with the highest income tax rates. The top rate is a big deterrent to...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 5, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs
If you have municipal bonds issued by the city of Los Angeles, you may want to dump them while there’s still time. The LA Times reports that one-third of the city’s budget in 2015 will get consumed by pensions and benefits for retired bureaucrats. The cost of...
