by Dan Mitchell | Nov 20, 2018 | Blogs, Economic Growth, Economics
I generally don’t write much about the distribution of income (most-recent example from 2017), largely because that feeds into the false notion that the economy is a fixed pie and that politicians should have the power to re-slice if they think incomes aren’t...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 16, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
I periodically ask my left-leaning friends to identify a nation that became rich with statist policies. They usually point to Sweden or Denmark, but I point out that Sweden and Denmark became rich in the 1800s and early 1900s, when government was very small. At that...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 11, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
I periodically explain that labor and capital are the two factors of production and that our prosperity depends on how efficiently they are allocated. But I probably don’t spend enough time highlighting how they are complementary, meaning that workers and capitalists...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 10, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Last month, I explained why trade deficits don’t matter. I make the same point in this short video from Freedom Partners. Near the end of the video, I pointed out that unfettered trade is good, whether with your neighbors or with people in other nations. And I also...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 6, 2018 | Blogs, Economics
The theory of “economic convergence” is based on the notion that poor nations should grow faster than rich nations and eventually achieve the same level of development. This theory is quite reasonable, but I’ve pointed out that decent public policy (i.e., free markets...
