by Dan Mitchell | Dec 14, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
I don’t know if this is a good personality trait or a character flaw, but it always brings a big smile to my face when a leftist tries to argue for bigger government but inadvertently makes an argument in favor of smaller government. Sort of like scoring a goal...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 10, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
While there are plenty of reasons to dislike the World Bank, United Nations, and (especially) the International Monetary Fund, the worst international bureaucracy on a per-dollar spent basis has to be the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 9, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Many statists are worried that Republicans may install new leadership at the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This is a big issue because these two score-keeping bureaucracies on Capitol Hill tilt to the left and have a lot of...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
When I discuss corporate welfare, my first example is usually the Export-Import Bank. It galls me that taxpayers are coerced into subsidizing some of the world’s biggest corporations. And since I’m an economist, I also don’t like how these subsidies undermine the...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 6, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
When people figure out ways to keep the money they earn in their own pockets, rather than having it confiscated by government, I’m almost always happy. That’s because governments tend to waste money (should any of us pay for corrupt pork-barrel spending?). And it’s...