by Dan Mitchell | Apr 22, 2019 | Blogs, Trade
When I pontificate about trade, I often point out that protectionism is a net negative for the economy. Yes, it is possible to erect trade barriers that benefit specific sectors and protect certain jobs, and this is the “seen” benefit. But the “unseen” costs...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 21, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The International Monetary Fund is one of my least favorite international bureaucracies because the political types who run the organization routinely support bad policies such as bailouts and tax increases. But there are professional economists at the IMF who do good...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 20, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Argentina is a sobering example of how statist policies can turn a rich nation into a poor nation. I’m not exaggerating. After World War II, Argentina was one of the world’s 10-richest nations. But then Juan Perón took power and initiated Argentina’s slide toward big...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 18, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
There are two things everyone should understand about the federal budget. First, America faces a grim future because Washington spending will consume an ever-larger share of economic output because of demographic changes and poorly designed entitlement programs....
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 17, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Socialism
Every Thanksgiving, I share the story of how the Pilgrims nearly starved to death because of their experiment with collectivized agriculture. Once the settlers shifted to a system based on private ownership, however, their problems disappeared. The obvious moral of...
