by Dan Mitchell | Mar 4, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Monetary Policy
The coronavirus is a genuine threat to prosperity, at least in the short run, in large part because it is causing a contraction in global trade. The silver lining to that dark cloud is that President Trump may learn that trade is actually good rather than bad. But...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 23, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Early last year, I shared a video explaining that trade deficits generally don’t matter. I even suggested trade deficits might be a sign of economic strength because foreigners who earned dollars were anxious to invest them in the American economy. I’m recycling this...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 28, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
Back in 2014, I compared Hong Kong’s amazing growth with Cuba’s pitiful stagnation and made the obvious point that free markets and limited government are the right recipe for prosperity. Especially if you care about improving the lives of the less fortunate....
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 27, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
About 10 years ago, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity released this video to explain that America’s real fiscal problem is too much spending and that red ink is best viewed as a symptom of that problem. I wrote a primer on this issue two years ago, but I want to...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 23, 2020 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Back in 2010, I wrote about the absurd contention, promoted by some advocates of Keynesian economics, that wars are good for prosperity. According to this crackpot theory, destroying wealth is a net positive because people then have to spend money to rebuild. Now this...
