by Dan Mitchell | Jun 28, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
I wrote yesterday about the continuing success of Switzerland’s spending cap. Before voters changed the Swiss constitution, overall expenditures were growing by an average of 4.6 percent annually. Ever since the “debt brake” took effect, though, government spending...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 9, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve half-joked in the past that spending restraint is the answer to every fiscal problem. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the right answer to 98 percent of fiscal problems. Some fiscal discipline is what we need in America, for instance, and it’s certainly an...
by Dan Mitchell | May 20, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
As a general rule, we worry too much about deficits and debt. Yes, red ink matters, but we should pay more attention to variables such as the overall burden of government spending and the structure of the tax system. That being said, Greece shows that a nation can...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 9, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
Five former Democratic appointees to the Council of Economic Advisers have a column in today’s Washington Post asserting that we should not blame entitlements for America’s future fiscal problems. The good news is that they at least recognize that there’s a future...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 6, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, States, Tax Competition, Taxation
I’m a big fan of federalism because states have the flexibility to choose good policy or bad policy. And that’s good news for me since I get to write about the consequences. One of the main lessons we learn (see here, here, here, here, and here) is that high-earning...
