by Dan Mitchell | Aug 5, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe
Centuries from now, I’m sure historians won’t bother teaching about the Magna Carta, the Constitution, the end of slavery, or the collapse of communism. Instead, people who want to know about human rights will learn about these great European developments. In France,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 20, 2012 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
The mess in Europe has been rather frustrating, largely because almost everybody is on the wrong side. Some folks say they want “austerity,” but that’s largely a code word for higher taxes. They’re fighting against the people who say they want “growth,” but that’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 15, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economic Growth, Government Spending
I’m in Vilnius, Lithuania, where I just finished speaking to a regional conference of the European Students for Liberty. I subjected the kids to more than 90 minutes of pontificating and 73 PowerPoint slides, but I could have saved them a lot of time if I simply...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 8, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe
For quite some time, I’ve thought of Herman van Rompuy as the poster child of Europe’s incompetent political elite. Virtually unknown to people in the real world (his sole claim to fame is that a British MEP, in a speech that went viral on YouTube, said he resembled a...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 5, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
With all the fiscal troubles in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and Italy, there’s not much attention being paid to Cyprus. But the Mediterranean island nation is a good case study illustrating the economic dangers of big government. For all intents and purposes,...