by Dan Mitchell | Oct 5, 2024 | Blogs, Economics
Industrial policy is when politicians and bureaucrats use various combinations of tax, spending, and regulatory policies to steer the economy. In other words, they are putting their thumbs on the scale to pick winners and losers. It means replacing the...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 3, 2024 | Blogs, Economics
I frequently cite a column I wrote in 2017 about how 1980-2010 was a reasonably good era for China, thanks to a bit of economic liberalization. My leftist friends will say that can’t be true because inequality increased during those decades. I respond...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 30, 2024 | Blogs, Economics
If you want to rigorously assess a nation’s economic outlook, investigate how it is scored based on the dozens of variables included in Economic Freedom of the World and the Index of Economic Freedom. And also look at whether its overall score is...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 29, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Socialism
Since I’m a numbers wonk, I think the most powerful evidence for the failure of Cuban socialism is comparing that nation’s growth (or lack thereof) to what’s happened in Taiwan and (pre-crackdown) Hong Kong. They all had similar levels of...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 26, 2024 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
On tax policy, our friends on the left are motivated by envy and hatred. As shown in this Stossel video, Robert Reich is a sad example of this mindset. John Stossel understates his argument. It’s not that Reich is wrong. He’s wildly wrong. There are four points in the...
