by Dan Mitchell | Jul 16, 2019 | Blogs, Economics
One of the few theoretical constraints on Washington is that politicians periodically have to raise a “debt ceiling” or “debt limit” in order to finance additional spending with additional red ink. I have mixed feelings about this requirement. I like that there is...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 22, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
In the absence of genuine entitlement reform, the United States at some point is going to suffer from a debt crisis. But red ink is merely a symptom. I used numbers from Greece in this interview to underscore the fact that the real problem is government spending. The...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 7, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
The long-run fiscal outlook for most developed nations is very grim thanks to demographic change and poorly designed entitlement programs. For all intents and purposes, we’re all destined to become Greece according to long-run projections from the International...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 15, 2018 | Blogs, Europe, Taxation
Less than 10 years ago, many European nations suffered fiscal crises because of a combination of excessive spending, punitive taxes, and crippling debt. The crises have since abated, largely because of direct and indirect bailouts. But the underlying policy...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 5, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I don’t like writing about deficits and debt because I don’t want to deflect attention from the more important underlying problem of excessive government spending. Indeed, I constantly explain that spending is what diverts resources from the productive sector of the...
