by Dan Mitchell | Oct 5, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
Last century, I remember reading about the “Washington Consensus,” which was a term that was used to describe the kind of policy advice in those days provided to (or imposed upon) the developing world by the IMF, World Bank, and U.S. Treasury. I never studied the...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 14, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Free Market
The folks at the Fraser Institute in Canada have just released a new version of Economic Freedom of the World. As has been the case for many years, Hong Kong is #1 and Singapore is #2, followed by New Zealand (#3) and Switzerland (#4). Interestingly, the United States...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 11, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
I first opined about Pope Francis in 2013, when I told a BBC audience why the Pope was wrong on economic policy. The following year, I expanded on that point, explaining that statist policies are bad for the poor. And I revisited the issue again last year. I’m not the...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 2, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
I’ve periodically explained that capital formation (more machines, technology, etc) is necessary if we want higher wages. Simply stated, workers get paid on the basis of what they produce and the most effective way of boosting productivity is to have more saving and...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 10, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Free Market
Having been inspired by Ronald Reagan’s libertarian-ish message (and track record), I’ve always been suspicious of alternative forms of conservatism for the simple reason that they always seem to mean bigger government. There was George H.W. Bush’s “kinder and...
