Price Controls Are Exacerbating the Damage of Hurricane Sandy

by Dan Mitchell | Nov 4, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations

Price controls are a spectacularly foolish idea, and that’s true whether they’re imposed by thugs such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s why one of the 20th Century’s economic heroes is Ludwig Erhard, who...

A Four-Picture Indictment: Final Pre-Election Jobs Report Is Not Good News for Obama

by Dan Mitchell | Nov 2, 2012 | Blogs, Economic Growth, Economics

In some sense, the President is fortunate. I predicted a long time ago that he would win re-election if the unemployment rate was under 8 percent. Well, the new numbers just came out and the joblessness rate is 7.9 percent. So even though his stimulus failed, and even...

Amusing California Satire by Walter Williams, but What if Gov. Brown Takes It Seriously?

by Dan Mitchell | Oct 10, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States, Tax Competition, Taxation

I periodically mock the crazy statists of California. The state is almost surely doomed to suffer a Greek-style fiscal chaos. The only unknown is whether Illinois will beat the Golden State into default. The politicians in Sacramento impose very high taxes to fund a...

Debunking Obama’s Flawed Assertions on Tax Deductions and Corporate Welfare

by Dan Mitchell | Oct 5, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation

In a violation of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, my brutal overseers at the Cato Institute required me to watch Wednesday’s debate (you can see what Cato scholars said by clicking here). But I will admit that it was good to...

The Laffer Curve Strikes Again: Revenues Falling in Spite of (or Perhaps Because of) Spain’s Punitive Corporate Tax Rate

by Dan Mitchell | Oct 4, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Tax Competition, Taxation

I’ve shared evidence from around the world (England, Italy, the United States, and France) and from various states (Illinois, Oregon, Florida,Maryland, and New York) to argue that it is foolish to ignore the Laffer Curve. Not that it makes any difference. I’m slowly...