by Dan Mitchell | Dec 5, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I don’t like writing about deficits and debt because I don’t want to deflect attention from the more important underlying problem of excessive government spending. Indeed, I constantly explain that spending is what diverts resources from the productive sector of the...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 2, 2018 | Blogs, Taxation
With the exception of 2010-2014, when the Tea Party briefly had a grip on the Republican Party, the burden of government spending has been increasing in the United States. This unfortunate trend can’t continue indefinitely, so sooner or later we’ll reach a point where...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 29, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The central argument against punitive taxation is that it leads to less economic activity. Here’s a visual from an excellent video tutorial by Professor Alex Tabarrok. It shows that government grabs a share of private output when a tax is imposed, thus reducing the...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 14, 2018 | Blogs, Taxation
The most disturbing outcome of the recent mid-term election isn’t that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be a Member of Congress. I actually look forward to that because of the humor value. Instead, with the Democrats now controlling the House of Representatives, I’m more...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 4, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
There are three reasons why the right kind of tax reform can help the economy grow faster. Lower tax rates give people more incentive to earn income. Less double taxation boosts incentives to save and invest. Fewer loopholes improves incentives for economic...