by Dan Mitchell | May 12, 2019 | Blogs, Economics
Because they wrongly assume the economy is a fixed pie, some of my friends on the left think it’s bad for there to be rich people. They actually think that must mean the rest of us have less income. But that’s not true. At least it’s not accurate if we start with the...
by Dan Mitchell | May 9, 2019 | Blogs, Trade
When I want to feel optimistic about China, I look at data from Economic Freedom of the World to confirm that there was a lot of economic liberalization (triggered in part by some civil disobedience) between 1980 and the early 2000s. Then I look at how that period of...
by Dan Mitchell | May 6, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation, Trade
Back in 2015, when Trump was a long-shot candidate for the Republican nomination, I criticized him for not signing the no-tax-hike pledge. But he then pushed through a better-than-expected tax plan after getting the White House. And that package reduces the tax burden...
by Dan Mitchell | May 3, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market, Socialism
In a column for the New York Times, Jochen Bittner writes about how a rising star of Germany’s Social Democrat Party wants the type of socialism that made the former East Germany an economic failure. Socialism, the idea that workers’ needs are best met by the...
by Dan Mitchell | May 2, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Socialism
Since I think comparative economics can be very enlightening, I’m quite pleased to see a new study by David Burton of the Heritage Foundation, which uses several metrics to assess the relative merits of socialism and free enterprise. This is not necessarily an easy...
