by Dan Mitchell | Apr 20, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
To show that living standards are much higher in the United States than they are in Europe, I periodically share OECD data on average individual consumption (2012, 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2022). All of which implies that European...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 7, 2024 | Blogs, Europe, Monetary Policy
If you asked a reasonably competent economics student to explain why there was a surge of inflation in the eurozone in 2022, that person presumably would be familiar with Milton Friedman’s wisdom and immediately would investigate whether there was a...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 30, 2024 | Blogs, Taxation, VAT
I wrote 10 days ago about why a value-added tax would be a mistake for the United States. To help reinforce that argument, here’s a new map from the Tax Foundation showing VAT rates on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. With a few exceptions...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
Back in April, I warned that European governments were spending too much, sewing the seeds of another fiscal crisis (aided and abetted by the European Commission). Let’s expand on that issue today, focusing specifically on the eurozone (the European nations that use...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 24, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe
Last month, I shared data on per-capita welfare spending in American states. The big takeaway was that states such as New York and California were spending more tan twice as much as states such as Texas and Florida. And I concluded...
