European Fiscal Agreements Show that Balanced Budget Rules Mean Higher Taxes, not Smaller Government

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 21, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending, Taxation

I have many frustrations in my life, and near the top of the list is the conservative fixation about balancing the budget. This view is very misguided. Red ink isn’t good, but the fiscal problem in America (as well as Europe, Japan, etc) is that the public sector is...

Real-World Evidence Showing that Unemployment Insurance Benefits Increase Unemployment

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 13, 2011 | Blogs, Economics

I’ve written before about the perverse impact of the unemployment insurance program, and I’ve even cited how left-wing economists such as Paul Krugman and Larry Summers admit that you get more joblessness when you pay people for not working. I’ve even shared a very...

New Video Punctures Myths about Great Depression, Exposes Damaging Impact of Statist Policies by Hoover and FDR

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 12, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending

I’ve commented many times about the misguided big-government policies of both Hoover and FDR, so I can say with considerable admiration that this video packs an amazing amount of solid info into about five minutes. Perhaps the most surprising bit of info in the video...

European Central Bank Research Shows that Government Spending Undermines Economic Performance

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 11, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending

Europe is in the midst of a fiscal crisis caused by too much government spending, yet many of the continent’s politicians want the European Central Bank to purchase the dodgy debt of reckless welfare states such as Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal in order to prop...

Europe’s Clueless Politicians Are So Incompetent that They Can’t Even Figure Out How to Do the Wrong Thing

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 10, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending

There’s always been a simple and desirable solution to Europe’s fiscal crisis, but nobody in Europe wants to do the right thing because it means admitting the failure of big government and it would result in less power for the political elite. So we get the spectacle...