by Dan Mitchell | Jun 26, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The Social Security Administration has released the 2016 Trustees Report, which shines a spotlight on the overall fiscal condition of the program. In previous years (2012, 2013, 2014), I’ve used this opportunity to play Paul Revere. But instead of warning that the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 13, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
Changing demographics is one of the most powerful arguments for genuine entitlement reform. When programs such as Social Security and Medicare (and equivalent systems in other nations) were first created, there were lots of young people and comparatively few old...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 17, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Maybe future events will require a reassessment, but right now the biggest danger to the western world isn’t terrorism. Nor is it climate change. Or Zika. Or even Donald Trump. The real threat is demographic change. America’s population profile already has changed,...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 20, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Laffer Curve, Welfare and Entitlements
The welfare state is bad news. It’s bad for taxpayers and it’s bad for recipients. It’s also bad for the economy since prosperity is in part a function of the quantity of labor that is productively employed. As such, government programs that lure people into...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 17, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Flat Tax, Taxation
I’m in Hong Kong for series of meeting and briefings on various economic and policy issues. As you can imagine, I’m a huge fan of the jurisdiction’s simple 15 percent flat tax. It’s basically about as close to a pure flat tax as anyplace in the world. There is...
