by Dan Mitchell | Nov 3, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
In 2008, government spending consumed 50.9 percent of economic output in Greece according to OECD fiscal data. That same year, Greece’s score from Economic Freedom of the World was 7.12 (on a 0-10 scale), which was rather poor for a supposedly developed country and...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 18, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe
When I tell journalists and politicians that the European fiscal situation is worse today than it was immediately prior to the crisis, they don’t believe me. What about all the spending cuts, they ask? What about the draconian austerity? And the Troika-imposed fiscal...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 16, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Remember Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, the 1993 comedy classic about a weatherman who experiences the same day over and over again? Well, the same thing is happening in Japan. But instead of a person waking up and reliving the same day, we get politicians pursuing the...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 14, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Economics, Government Spending
I’ve written (some would say excessively) about the fact that America has too many bureaucrats and that they’re paid too much. That’s true in Washington. That’s true at the state level. And it’s true for local governments. But since I’m a big believer in beating a...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 8, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
I’m like a broken record when it comes to entitlement spending. I’ve explained, ad nauseam, that programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and Social Security must be reformed. In part, genuine entitlement reform is a good idea because you get better economic...
