by Dan Mitchell | Dec 21, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
Appearing on Bloomberg TV, I pontificate about the good, the bad, and the ugly in the recent tax deal. I also make what I hope are good points about the Laffer Curve and the meaning of deficits. The video won’t embed, but just click here and you can watch it on...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 12, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When big-spending politicians in Washington pontificate about “deficit reduction,” taxpayers should be very wary. Crocodile tears about red ink almost always are a tactic that the political class uses to make tax increases more palatable. The way it works is that the...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 11, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
There are plenty of reason to like and dislike the tax deal between President Obama and congressional leaders. On the plus side, we dodge a big tax increase for the next two years. We also replace a goofy and ineffective “make work pay” tax credit with a supply-side...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
Compared to ideal policy, the deal announced last night between congressional Republicans and President Obama is terrible. Compared to what I expected to happen, the deal announced last night is pretty good. In other words, grading this package depends on your...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 3, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this morning that the unemployment rate jumped to 9.8 percent last month. As you can see from the chart, the White House claimed that if we enacted the so-called stimulus, the unemployment rate today would be about 7 percent....