The overall fiscal burden in the United States may be lower than it is in Europe, but there are some features of the internal revenue code that are far worse than what can be found on the other side of the Atlantic. America has a “worldwide” tax system, for instance, which means that our government […]

My life is now devoted to saving America from the European-style national sales tax known as the value-added tax. Writing in the New York Post, I explain that the impact of a VAT in Europe is bigger government, not smaller deficits: The real-world evidence shows that VATs are strongly linked with both higher overall tax […]

I don’t know what’s more laughable, the fact that some EU bureaucracy is creating an 80-minute poem (with dancing, no less), or that the “low-grade bank clerk” who masquerades as the European Council President is going to publish a a book of haiku poems. But only one item is objectionable, and that’s the latter since […]

Greece is in trouble for a combination of reasons. Government spending is far too excessive, diverting resources from more efficient uses. The bureaucracy is too large and paid too much, resulting in a misallocation of labor. And tax rates are too high, further hindering the productive sector of the economy. Europe’s political class wants to […]

Or maybe this belongs in the “great moments in international bureaucracy” series since it relates to European Union law. Regardless, we have another sign of Europe’s fiscal nightmare. A court in the United Kingdom has given a big green light to welfare tourism by ruling that a foreign citizen can get handouts based on children […]

Ireland may be in a recession (caused in large part by misguided housing subsidies), but there are two things worth admiring about the Emerald Isle’s public policy. Many wonks already know about the first policy, the 12.5 percent corporate tax rate that helped transform Ireland from the “sick man of Europe.” But it seems that Irish […]

Greece’s fiscal disarray is a visible manifestation of Europe’s future, but the most appropriate symbol of what’s wrong with the continent comes from Brussels, where there are three “presidents” fighting over the right to represent Europe at international gatherings. The contestants include the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Council, and […]

We’ve already addressed this issue, but this story is even more amusng. I’ll resist the need for any (additional) awful puns, and I’ll even admit I don’t know for sure that these…um…services are financed by taxpayers (but that must be true since we’re talking about the Netherlands, right?). But is this really such a big […]

Here’s a good big-picture analysis from the Weekly Standard blog: http://weeklystandard.com/articles/do-mention-war.  Here’s a story about riots and social chaos: http://m.cnbc.com/us_news/35810290. And here’s a story comparing Greece and New York: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/it_all_greek_to_ny_2ML0dIswG4rKRcNjUD0T1L The common theme is that reckless overspending is the cause of Greece’s fiscal crisis, yet American politicians are refusing to learn the right lesson.

According to Financial Times report the politicians in Paris and Berlin want to set up some sort of European Monetary Fund to help bail out Greece and other profligate European nations. This is good news in the short run for American taxpayers since it is less likely that American taxpayers will be financing bailouts through […]