by Dan Mitchell | Feb 8, 2020 | Blogs, Economics
There’s endless “spin” in over-politicized and self-serving Washington, with Democrats and Republicans both trying to convince people why any particular bit of economic data is either wonderful news or horrible news. Since I care about policy rather than politics, I...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 2, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
At the beginning of the Trump era, many of us (including me) warned that his statements on trade were nonsensical. And when Trump shifted from bad rhetoric to bad policy, Johan Norberg pointed out why trade wars are very misguided. As you might expect, Johan is...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 1, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Trade
Yesterday’s column was my annual end-of-year round-up of the best and worst developments of the concluding year. Today I’ll be forward looking and give you my hopes and fears for the new year, which is a newer tradition that began in 2017 (and continued...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 24, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Government Waste
I wrote yesterday that the Trump tax plan is yielding significant benefits, but one of my caveats at the end of the column warned that Trump’s weak record on spending undermines the long-run sustainability of lower tax rates. The latest example of Trump’s profligacy...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 23, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The Trump tax plan, which was signed into law right before Christmas in 2017, had two very good features. Restricting the deduction for state and local taxes. A reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21 percent. The former was important because the federal tax code...
