by Dan Mitchell | May 4, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Which nation is richer, Belarus or Luxembourg? If you look at total economic output, you might be tempted to say Belarus. The GDP of Belarus, after all, is almost $72 billion while Luxembourg’s GDP is less than $60 billion. But that would be a preposterous answer...
by Dan Mitchell | May 3, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Tax Competition, Taxation
If you’re a regular reader, you already know I’m a big supporter of tax competition and tax havens. Here’s the premise: Politicians almost always are focused on their next election and this encourages them to pursue policies that are designed to maximize votes and...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 27, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
What happens when you mix something good with something bad? To be more specific, what happens when you have a big success story, like the spending cap in Switzerland that has dramatically slowed the growth of government, and then expect intelligent and coherent...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 18, 2014 | Blogs, Taxation
I’m ecumenical on tax reform. I’ll support any plan that rips up the internal revenue code and instead lowers tax rates, reduces double taxation, and cuts out distorting loopholes. And as I explain in this interview, both the flat tax and national sales tax have a low...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 11, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
In the pre-World War I era, the fiscal burden of government was very modest in North America and Western Europe. Total government spending consumed only about 10 percent of economic output, most nations were free from theplague of the income tax, and the value-added...
