The Wall Street Journal’s Primer on Capital Gains Taxation

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 23, 2012 | Blogs, Capital Gains, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation

One of the principles of good tax policy and fundamental tax reform is that there should be no double taxation of income that is saved and invested. Such a policy promotes current consumption at the expense of future consumption, which is simply an econo-geek way of...

If Sweden’s Big Welfare State Is Superior to America’s Medium Welfare State, then Why Do Swedes in America Earn Far More than Swedes in Sweden?

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 14, 2012 | Economics

In my travels through Europe, I often wind up debating whether policy is better in the United States or Europe. I generally try to explain that this is the wrong comparison, both because Europe is not a monolithic bloc and also because most individual nations have...

Another Dismal Assessment of Obamanomics: United States Drops to 7th in WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 5, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Government Waste, Regulations

Every year, I look forward to the annual releases of both Economic Freedom of the World and the Index of Economic Freedom. With their comprehensive rankings, these two publications enable interested parties to compare nations and see which countries are moving in the...

Study from German Economists Shows that Tax Competition and Fiscal Decentralization Limit Income Redistribution

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 4, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Tax Competition, Tax Harmonization, Taxation

If we want to avoid the kind of Greek-style fiscal collapse implied by this BIS and OECD data, we need some external force to limit the tendency of politicians to over-tax and over-spend. That’s why I’m a big advocate of tax competition, fiscal sovereignty, and...

America’s Corporate Tax Rate is So Punitive that Companies Are Even Moving to Welfare States Like the U.K. to Be More Competitive

by Dan Mitchell | Aug 30, 2012 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation

I was a bit surprised couple of years ago to read that an American company re-located to Canada to benefit from better tax policy. But I wasn’t totally shocked by the news because Canada has been lowering tax rates, reducing the burden of government spending, and...