by Dan Mitchell | Jun 15, 2012 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
Spain’s received a bailout, Greece is having another election tomorrow, and the European political elite is pushing for more centralization. In other words, business as usual in the continent where voters think you can get nothing for nothing (this satirical cartoon...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 6, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Keynesian
Writing in yesterday’s Washington Post, former Obama economist Larry Summers put forth the strange hypothesis that more red ink would improve the federal government’s long-run fiscal position. This sounds like an excuse for more Keynesian spending as part of another...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 28, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve complained endlessly that America’s fiscal problem is too much spending, and that deficits and debt are best understood as symptoms of that underlying disease. So I’m obviously a big fan of this new video from the folks at Learn Liberty. I like how they use...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 27, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve argued, ad nauseam, that the single most important goal of fiscal policy is (or should be) to make sure the private sector grows faster than the government. This “golden rule” is the best way of enabling growth and avoiding fiscal crises, and I’ve cited nations...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 28, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
A couple of weeks ago, I offered some guarded praise for Paul Ryan’s budget, pointing out that it satisfies the most important requirement of fiscal policy by restraining spending – to an average of 3.1 percent per year over the next 10 years – so that government...