by Dan Mitchell | Feb 15, 2026 | Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Let’s start today’s column with two simple and uncontroversial statements. Without real entitlement reform, the burden of government spending will grow dramatically over the next few decades. There are only three ways – taxes, borrowing, and money-printing – to...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 11, 2026 | Blogs, Government Spending
Starting in 2010, and then most recently in 2024, I have repeatedly demonstrated that it is very simple to balance the budget. All that is necessary is some reasonable spending restraint, sort of like what happened during the Tea Party era in the early part of last...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 1, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
Let’s look today at European fiscal policy. But instead of focusing on the immediate issue (the likelihood of another fiscal crisis), we’re going to investigate whether we can learn anything by looking at what’s happened in the past. My two cents, based...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 17, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Because economists are lousy forecasters, I don’t pretend to know when a fiscal crisis will occur or which nation will be the first debt domino. But it will happen. Indeed, I suspect it will happen the next time there’s an economic downturn (though I...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 27, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
The main goal of fiscal policy should be to shrink the burden of government spending, not to balance the budget or lower debt. However, those two goals are not in conflict if policy makers pursue good policy. The evidence is overwhelming that...
