Back in 2010, I shared a remarkable chart showing how quickly economic output doubles in a fast-growth economy, but it also showed how long it takes for GDP to expand if an economy only grows 1 percent or 2 percent per year. My main message was that nations should follow good policy because: …even modest differences in […]

Obamacare resulted in big increases in the fiscal burden of government(ironically, it would be even worse if Obama hadn’t unilaterally suspended parts of the law). The legislation increased government spending, mostly for expanded Medicaidand big subsidies for private insurance. There were also several tax hikes, with targeted levies on medical device makers and tanning beds, as well as some soak-the-rich […]

Why are some nations rich and other nations poor? What has enabled some nations to escape poverty while others continue to languish? And if we want to help poor nations prosper, what’s the right recipe? Since I’m a public finance economist, I’m tempted to say a flat tax and small government are an elixir for prosperity, but those policies […]

Regular readers know that good fiscal policy takes place when government spending grows slower than the private economy. Nations that maintain this Golden Rule for extended periods of time shrink the relative burden of government spending, thus enabling more growth by freeing up resources for the productive sector of the economy and creating leeway for lower tax rates. […]

There’s an old saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. That may be true if you’re in Hollywood and visibility is a key to long-run earnings. But in the world of public policy, you don’t want to be a punching bag. And that describes my role in a book excerpt just published by Salon. Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematics professor […]

The title of this post sounds like the beginning of a strange joke, but it’s actually because we’re covering three issues today. Our first topic is corporate taxation. More specifically, we’re looking at a nation that seems to be learning that it’s foolish the have a punitive corporate tax system. By way of background, the […]

Our leftist friends have decided that income inequality is a scourge that must be addressed. That might be a noble goal if they were motivated by a desire to improve the lives of the less fortunate. Based on their policy proposals, though, it appears that the main goal is to punish the so-called rich. And they’re so fixated […]