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...

John Stossel Exposes the Fraud of Government Job Training Programs

by Dan Mitchell | Oct 3, 2012 | Blogs, Economics

There have been lots of studies showing that there’s no benefit to job training programs. People who sign up with these government schemes are not more likely to either get jobs or to earn more money. Heck, even the New York Times was forced to acknowledge that these...

France’s Fiscal Suicide

by Dan Mitchell | Oct 2, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation

I try to be self aware, so I realize that I have the fiscal version of Tourette’s. Regardless of the question that is asked, I’m tempted to blurt out that the answer is to reduce the burden of government spending. But sometimes that’s exactly the right prescription,...