by Dan Mitchell | May 2, 2026 | Blogs, Economics, Europe, Welfare and Entitlements
The world’s big economic policy battle is not capitalism vs. socialism. Other than a few primitive backwater nations like Cuba and North Korea, genuine socialism has largely been vanquished. Instead, the battle in most countries...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 29, 2026 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I sometimes root for bad things to happen. In my defense, I don’t like bad things, but in some cases I think bad outcomes will generate powerful evidence against bad policies. And this can result in a net increase in...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 28, 2026 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Looking at Part I and Part II, and considering the focus of today’s column, this series should actually be entitled “Trade Deficit Literacy.” That’s because the material I cite explains that a trade deficit is merely the flip side of an investment surplus. And it is...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 26, 2026 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
I wrote last year to support “…the notion that taxes change behavior. I even have a five-part series (here, here, here, here, and here) emphasizing the point.” Simply stated, people respond to incentives. Economists...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 25, 2026 | Blogs, Economics
To follow up on Part I and Part II in this series, let’s start with this Stossel video featuring Professor Don Boudreaux of George Mason University. The message is simple and accurate. Starting nearly 100 years ago, we got terrible statist...
