by Dan Mitchell | Jul 23, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs
I’m rather pessimistic about Italy. Simply stated, its economy is moribund. If you peruse the OECD’s economic database, you’ll see that both inflation-adjusted GDP and inflation-adjusted private consumption expenditure (in some ways a more accurate measure of actual...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 13, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs
I will occasionally pontificate about a demographic crisis in the developed world, but I usually feel guilty afterward. After all, how can it be a bad thing that we’re living longer? And what gives me the right to grouse about the number of children other families...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 21, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
I’ve looked at some of the grim fiscal implications of demographic changes the United States and Europe. Now let’s look at what’s happening in Asia. The International Monetary Fund has a recent study that looks at shortfalls in government-run pension schemes and...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 6, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The tax-and-transfer welfare state is in deep trouble. I explained last year that the United States faces a very serious long-run challenge. Many of our entitlement programs were created based on the assumption that we would always have an expanding population, as...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 5, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
When I warn about the fiscal and economic consequences of America’s poorly designed entitlement programs (as well as the impact of demographic changes), I regularly suggest that the United States is on a path to become Greece. Because of Greece’s horrible economy,...
