by Dan Mitchell | May 6, 2016 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Imagine if you had the chance to play basketball against a superstar from the NBA like Stephen Curry. No matter how hard you practiced beforehand, you surely would lose. For most people, that would be fine. We would console ourselves with the knowledge that we tried...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 30, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Health Care, Taxation
What’s the worst loophole (properly defined) in the cluttered internal revenue code? I think the deduction for state and local taxes is very bad policy since it enables higher tax burdens in states such as California, New Jersey, and Illinois. The exemption for...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 29, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
We can learn a lot of economic lessons from Europe. Never adopt a VAT unless you want much bigger government. Bigger government means lower living standards. Don’t believe Bernie Sanders about the Nordic nations. Today, we’re going to focus on another lesson, which is...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 28, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Tax Competition, Taxation
There’s a very powerful statement, variously attributed to Alexis de Toqueville, Benjamin Franklin, or Alexander Tytler, that basically warns that democracy is doomed when people figure out they can vote themselves money. There’s no evidence that any of them actually...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 20, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Financial Privacy, Tax Competition, Taxation
I sometimes wonder if I was put on this planet to defend tax competition and tax havens. I argue for fiscal sovereignty, good tax policy, and financial privacy to the denizens of Capitol Hill, both in writing and in person. I make the same arguments for readers of the...
