by Dan Mitchell | Jul 23, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
There are many reasons to be depressed about Italy. Bad policy is part of the problem, of course, but this chart shows that the country also is facing a demographic crisis. The blue lines show that there are now more deaths than births. The chart comes from...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 1, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Before our depressing discussion today about the fiscal impact of entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, EITC, Food Stamps, welfare, and Obamacare, etc), here’s a video of how it all began. I think this is a great introduction to the issue,...
by Dan Mitchell | May 21, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Welfare and Entitlements
Despite the fact that Social Security is an ever-increasing fiscal burden with a 75-year cash-flow deficit of nearly $45 trillion, many politicians in Washington have been trying to buy votes with proposals to expand the program (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 8, 2019 | Blogs, Taxation
Every so often, I share very weird stories about government regulations, from both America and around the world. And when I say weird, I’m not exaggerating. But we also have some strange examples of tax loopholes. I’m not talking about corporate jets, which should be...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 2, 2019 | Blogs, Economics
It’s not easy picking the most pessimistic chart about Japan. The country suffered several decades of economic stagnation following the collapse of a bubble about three decades ago. That means it’s a bit of a challenge to identify the worst economic numbers. Is it the...
