by Dan Mitchell | Jul 3, 2022 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Welfare and Entitlements
In this clip from an interview with Chile’s Axel Kaiser, I discuss “Wagner’s Law” and the lessons to be learned from fiscal policy in Western Europe. If you don’t want to watch the video, my discussion can be summarized in three sentences. Yes, welfare states in...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 11, 2022 | Blogs
I’m currently in Tanzania as part of a speaking tour in Africa. My remarks today largely repeated the message I gave to an audience last week in Nigeria. So I won’t bother sharing anything from my presentation. Instead, I want to highlight some numbers from...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 27, 2021 | Uncategorized
I don’t know whether to be amused or frustrated, but I can’t help but notice that folks on the left frequently argue that the United States needs to make government bigger in order to “catch up” or “shrink the gap” with Europe. President Biden even has said...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 3, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Free Market
Economists of all types agree with “convergence theory,” which is the notion that poor countries should grow faster than rich countries. Though they are usually wise enough to also say “ceteris parisbus,” which means the theory applies if other variables are...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 31, 2021 | Blogs, Free Market
Economists widely agree with the theory of “convergence,” which is the (mostly true) idea that poor nations should grow faster than rich nations. This means that we can learn important lessons by looking at examples of “divergence,” and I...
