by Dan Mitchell | Feb 18, 2015 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
There’s a big fiscal battle happening in Europe. The relatively new Greek government is demanding continued handouts from the rest of Europe, but it wants to renege on at least some of the country’s prior commitments to improve economic performance by reducing the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 1, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Health Care, Welfare and Entitlements
Let’s look at three very important things that may happen this year and what they might mean. 1. Will the Republican Senate support genuine entitlement reform? One of the best things to happen in recent years is that House Republicans embraced genuine entitlement...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 16, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Europe is in deep trouble. That’s an oversimplification, of course, since there are a handful of nations that seem to be moving in the right direction (or at least not moving rapidly in the wrong direction). But notwithstanding those exceptions, Europe in general...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 27, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
I’m a big believer that real-world examples can teach us about the benefits of good fiscal policy (think Hong Kong, Estonia, Canada, and the U.S. under Reagan and Clinton) and the costs of bad fiscal policy (France, Cyprus, Greece, and the U.S. under Bush and Obama)....
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 9, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
I’m a pessimist about public policy for two simple reasons: 1) Seeking power and votes, elected officials generally can’t resist making short-sighted and politically motivated choices that expand the burden of government. 2) Voters are susceptible to bribery,...
