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...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 2, 2021 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
Back on December 28, I shared four charts for the explicit reason that I wanted everyone to understand that average living standards in the western world have skyrocketed over the past few centuries. I could have used that data to clear up myths about “robber barons”...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 28, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
My recent three-part series (here, here, and here) explained why policy makers should seek to reduce poverty rather than inequality. I want to expand on that point today by showing why growing the pie is more important than how it is sliced. I’ve previously opined on...