A former colleague from my days at the Heritage Foundation, Robert Rector, has a very disturbing article at National Review Online. Robert explains that the Obama Administration is putting together a new – and rigged – definition of poverty that has nothing to do with material deprivation. This new system instead will be a measure […]

 As usual, Tom Sowell uses basic economics to explain a confusing topic. His core insight is that government has undermined market forces, which is leading to rising costs. Obama and the other statists somehow think more government will make things better: …policies based on political hype over the years are what have gotten us into […]

President Obama is proposing a series of major tax increases. His budget envisions higher tax rates on personal income, increased double taxation of dividends and capital gains, and a big increase in the death tax. And his health care plan includes significant tax hikes, including perhaps the imposition of the Medicare payroll tax on capital […]

In addition to being in favor of more spending, increased regulation, bailouts, and protectionism, President Bush also saddled the economy with a big minimum wage increase. A new study shows that this pernicious policy has destroyed more than 500,000 part-time jobs. One of the most interesting insights in the report is that the economy (prior […]

In a new “Economics 101” video released today by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation (CF&P), Lotta Moberg, graduate student at Lund University, Sweden, explains that the economy of Sweden began to stagnate about 40 years ago because of excessive statism and government spending.

Sweden serves as a powerful example of the importance of public policy. Having once become rich when government was small, this Nordic nation began to stagnate as welfare state policies were implemented in the 1970s and 1980s. This video explains that Sweden is now shifting back to economic freedom in hopes of undoing the damage caused by an excessive welfare state.

For those of you who saw this segment of Wednesday’s show on CNBC, my co-host got quite agitated when I said I did not want America to have a substandard government-dictated healthcare system. Simon expressed doubt about my assertions, so it’s rather serendipitous that Investor’s Business Daily just editorialized about a new report (from the […]

The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador (akin to a state governor in the U.S.) defended his decision to get surgery in America with the statement that it was “my heart, my choice, and my health.” This is an admirably libertarian statement, and the “my choice, and my health” part could be the rallying cry for […]

A new study from the University of Michigan Law School’s Empirical Legal Studies Center finds that it is more difficult today for politicians to impose excessive financial regulation because firms can migrate to jurisdictions with more pro-market policy. The author notes tht this is less true for institutions, such as big banks, that want government […]

Here are a few interesting links to keep you informed about the fiscal crisis in Greece. Richard Rahn has a nice comparison in the Washington Times of Poland’s good policy and Greece’s profligacy. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/18/poland-versus-greece/ Reuters has a story about some new reforms in Greece, including a very Orwellian proposal to track everyone’s purchases by banning […]