by Dan Mitchell | Mar 16, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
It’s not very often that I applaud research from the International Monetary Fund. That international bureaucracy has a bad track record of pushing for tax hikes and other policies to augment the size and power of government (which shouldn’t surprise us since the IMF’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 15, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Minimum Wage
A few days ago, we used supply-and-demand curves to illustrate how taxes reduce economic output.Supply-and-demand curves also can be used to examine the impact of minimum wage laws on the labor market. Workers understandably will be willing to supply more labor at...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 13, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
While I sometimes make moral arguments against the current tax system (because it is corrupt, because it doesn’t treat people equally, because it provides unearned wealth for insiders, etc), my main arguments are based on economics. High tax rates on workers and...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 4, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
In my 2012 primer on fundamental tax reform, I explained that the three biggest warts in the current system. High tax rates that penalize productive behavior. Pervasive double taxation that discourages saving and investment. Corrupt loopholes and cronyism that bribe...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 3, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Monetary Policy
During periods of economic weakness, governments often respond with “loose” monetary policy, which generally means that central banks will take actions that increase liquidity and artificially lower interest rates. I’m not a big fan of this approach. If an economy is...
