by Dan Mitchell | Feb 7, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve put forth lots of arguments against tax increases, mostly focusing on why higher tax rates will depress growth and encourage more government spending. Today, let’s look at a practical, real-world example. I wrote a column for The Hill looking at why Greece...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 29, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
The famous French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand supposedly said that a weakness of the Bourbon monarchs was that they learned nothing and forgot nothing. If so, the genetic descendants of the Bourbons are now in charge of Europe. But before explaining why,...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 10, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
A couple of days ago, I wrote about Clemens Schneider’s hypothesis, presented at the European Students for Liberty regional conference in Maastricht, that 1356 was a very important year in European history because of two events that promoted decentralization and...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 6, 2016 | Blogs, Europe
Back in 2012, I wrote a detailed article explaining that Europe became rich in part because Europe didn’t exist. The geographic landmass of Europe existed, of course, but the continent was characterized by massive political fragmentation. And this absence of...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 18, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe
When I tell journalists and politicians that the European fiscal situation is worse today than it was immediately prior to the crisis, they don’t believe me. What about all the spending cuts, they ask? What about the draconian austerity? And the Troika-imposed fiscal...
