by Dan Mitchell | Jan 11, 2021 | Blogs, Economics
I have repeatedly warned that nations get in fiscal trouble when government is too big and growing too fast. In such countries, it’s very common to find high levels of government debt as one of the symptoms of excessive spending. This can create the conditions for a...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 8, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
For supporters of sensible policy, 2008 was not a good year. The economy suffered a big drop thanks to bad government policies (easy-money from the Federal Reserve and corrupt housing subsidies from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). So what did politicians do? Sadly, they...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 7, 2021 | Blogs, Capital Gains, Economics, Taxation
A “capital gain” occurs when you buy something and later sell it for a higher price. A capital gains tax is when politicians decide they get to grab a slice of that additional wealth. I’ve repeatedly explained that it is economically foolish to have such a tax because...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 4, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Trump was a big spender before coronavirus and he became an even-bigger spender once the pandemic began. But the White House generally didn’t add insult to injury by citing Keynesian economic theory to justify the president’s profligacy . Prior to the pandemic, the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 3, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
In an interview with Fox Business last week, I touched on three policies (easy money from the Fed, Biden’s class-warfare tax agenda, and the ever-increasing burden of federal spending) that create risks for the economy in 2021. I didn’t have a chance to elaborate in...
