by Dan Mitchell | Jan 10, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
There are two crises facing Social Security. First the program has a gigantic unfunded liability, largely caused by demographics. Second, the program is a very bad deal for younger workers, making them pay record amounts of tax in exchange for comparatively meager...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 27, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
A picture says a thousand words.
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 9, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Maybe elections have consequences after all. Bolstered by the populist uprising against bloated and wasteful government, politicians in Washington actually defended the interests of taxpayers yesterday. Not just once, but twice. Our first bit of holiday cheer comes...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 23, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I’m just making up the 1.94 percent number, but the International Herald Tribune reported last year that unfunded liabilities in France are nearly 550 percent of GDP. The news reports don’t include any estimates of what Sarkozy’s reform will mean, but I would be...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 9, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
The Economist has a fascinating webpage that allows you to look at all the world’s nations and compare them based on various measures of government debt (and for various years). The most economically relevant measure is public debt as a share of GDP, and you can see...
