by Dan Mitchell | Aug 11, 2020 | Blogs, Economics
I went to George Mason University for my Ph.D. specifically because of my interest in both “public choice” and “Austrian theory.” The former deals with analyzing how politicians, bureaucrats, and voters really behave (as opposed to the naive view you may have learned...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 8, 2020 | Blogs, Economics
There are all sorts of regulations, some of which affect the entire economy and some of which target certain sectors. Moreover, regulations vary widely since – depending on the example – they may tell people and business what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 7, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Tax Competition, Taxation
Largely because of my support for jurisdictional competition, I’m a big fan of federalism. Simply stated, our liberties are better protected when there’s decentralization since politicians are less like to over-tax and over-spend when they know potential victims of...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 6, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
We did not get good policy during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Indeed, it’s quite likely that bad decisions by Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt deepened and lengthened the Great Depression. Likewise, George Bush and Barack Obama had the wrong responses...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 4, 2020 | Blogs, Economics
In early June, I pontificated about the upside-down incentives that are created when government pays people more to be idle than they could get by working. This is a real-world concern because the crowd in Washington earlier this year approved a $600-per-week bonus...
