by Dan Mitchell | May 25, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I wrote last year about why Puerto Rico got into fiscal trouble. Like Greece and so many other governments, it did the opposite of Mitchell’s Golden Rule. Instead of a multi-year period of spending restraint, it allowed the budget to expand faster than the private...
by Dan Mitchell | May 24, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
Much of my work on fiscal policy is focused on educating audiences about the long-run benefits of small government and modest taxation. But what about the short-run issue of how to deal with a fiscal crisis? I have periodically weighed in on this topic, citing...
by Dan Mitchell | May 11, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
In my presentations about how to deal with budgetary deterioration and fiscal crisis, I often share with audiences a list of nations that have achieved very positive results with spending restraint. The middle column shows how these countries limited the growth of...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 26, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
It’s very hard to be optimistic about Japan. I’ve even referred to the country as a basket case. But my concern is not that the country has been mired in stagnation for the past 25 years. Instead, I’m much more worried about the future. The main problem is that Japan...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 27, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending, Taxation
With both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders agitating for higher taxes (and with more than a few Republicans also favoring more revenue because they don’t want to do any heavy lifting to restrain a growing burden of government), it’s time to examine the real-world...
