by Dan Mitchell | May 10, 2022 | Blogs, Free Market
Even though foreign aid is not an effective way of promoting prosperity, Ukraine’s government almost surely will be showered with money when the war is over. To make these handouts helpful rather than harmful, aid should be conditional. These remarks are from the...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs
Given my libertarian sensibilities, I would probably object to foreign aid programs even if they worked. But I don’t have to deal with that potential quandary because we have ample evidence that you don’t get prosperity by giving money to...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 2, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs
When criticizing the IMF, I usually focus on how the bureaucrats relentlessly urge higher taxes. Indeed, I often complain about how the bailouts are provided only if countries agree to raise taxes (another lose-lose situation). Today, though, I want to write...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 1, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Free Market, Government Spending
A couple of years ago, to help build the case against socialism, I showed how West Germany enjoyed much faster growth and much more prosperity than East Germany. The obvious lesson to be learned from this example of “anti-convergence” is that...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 10, 2021 | Blogs, Uncategorized
Foreign aid is an expensive failure. American taxpayers have coughed up hundreds of billions of dollars in recent decades for various government-to-government handouts, and the total is far higher when you include the aid payments of other nations and the...