by Dan Mitchell | May 1, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
For the people of China, there’s good news and bad news. The good news, as illustrated by the chart, is that economic freedom has increased dramatically since 1980. This liberalization has lifted hundreds of millions from abject poverty. The bad news is that China...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 9, 2015 | Blogs, Economics
I’m a firm believer in climate change. Heck, there have been several ice ages and warming periods, so it’s obvious that temperatures shift over time. And while I’m not particularly qualified to assess such matters, I’m also willing to believe that human activity has...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 28, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
We have some good news to share. A government has just announced that it is going to end the unfair practice of giving government bureaucrats pension benefits that are far greater than those available for workers in the economy’s productive sector. Can you guess which...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 23, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
I’m currently in Asia, where I just finished a series of speeches about economic policy in China and Hong Kong. These two jurisdictions offer very powerful lessons about the importance of economic policy. Hong Kong is supposed to be Nirvana for libertarians. It holds...
by Dan Mitchell | May 4, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Which nation is richer, Belarus or Luxembourg? If you look at total economic output, you might be tempted to say Belarus. The GDP of Belarus, after all, is almost $72 billion while Luxembourg’s GDP is less than $60 billion. But that would be a preposterous answer...