by Dan Mitchell | Aug 11, 2013 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
President Obama promised he would unite the world…and he’s right. Representatives from dozens of nations have bitterly complained about an awful piece of legislation, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), that was enacted back in 2010. They despise...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 4, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Tax Competition, Tax Havens, Taxation
I like tax havens for the simple reason that we need some ways of restraining the greed of the political class. Simply stated, if profligate politicians think that we are “captive customers,” they are much more likely to impose (even) higher tax rates (as we’ve seen...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 1, 2013 | Blogs, Taxation
In his latest pivot to jobs and the economy, the President spoke earlier today in Tennessee. Much of his speech was tax-spend-and-regulate boilerplate, but he did repackage some of his ideas into a so-called grand bargain. He said he’s willing to cut the corporate tax...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 31, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
In an interview last week about Detroit’s bankruptcy, I explained that the city got in trouble because of growing dependency and an ever-rising burden of government spending. I also warned that the federal government faces the same challenge. Washington is in trouble...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 28, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
There are all sorts of ways to measure the burden of government spending. The most obvious approach is to look at the share of economic output consumed by the public sector. That’s what I did, for instance, when comparing fiscal policy in France and Switzerland. And...