by Dan Mitchell | Jan 18, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
There’s an old joke about two guys camping in the woods, when suddenly they see a hungry bear charging over a hill in their direction. One of the guys starts lacing up his sneakers and his friend says, “What are you doing? You can’t outrun a bear.” The other guys...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 2, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation
The business pages are reporting that Chrysler will be fully owned by Fiat after that Italian company buys up remaining shares. I don’t know what this means about the long-term viability of Chrysler, but we can say with great confidence that the company will be better...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 9, 2013 | Blogs, Capital Gains, Economics, Taxation
Back in the 1960s, Clint Eastwood starred in a movie entitled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I was thinking that might be a good title for today’s post about some new research by Michelle Harding, a tax economist for the OECD. But then I realized that her study on...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 21, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Tax Competition, Taxation
There’s a tendency in public life to exaggerate the positive or negative implications of any particular policy. This is why I try to be careful not to overstate the potential benefits of reforms I like, such as the flat tax. Yes, we would get better growth and there...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 15, 2013 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation, VAT
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Bill Clinton. In part, that’s because economic freedom increased and the burden of government spending was reduced during his time in office. Partisans can argue whether Clinton actually deserves the credit for these good...