by Dan Mitchell | Oct 4, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Whenever I need to explain the difference between socialism and capitalism, I start by noting that socialism technically is different from Obama-style big-government redistributionism and cronyism. Socialism involves something more pervasive, involving government...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 22, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
The biggest mistake of well-meaning leftists is that they place too much value on good intentions and don’t seem to care nearly as much about good results. Pope Francis is an example of this unfortunate tendency. His concern for the poor presumably is genuine, but he...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 16, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
Last month, I cited data from Economic Freedom of the World to explain that the United States was becoming less competitive because of creeping protectionism and reductions in the rule of law and property rights. Now I have more bad news to share. Last year, the...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 28, 2015 | Blogs, Free Market
At the risk of stereotyping, the Chinese people are remarkably productive when given the chance. Hong Kong and Singapore are dominated by ethnic Chinese, and those jurisdictions routinely rank among the world’s top economies. Taiwan is another high-performing economy...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 19, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
I’m a huge fan of the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World. I always share the annual rankings when they’re released and I routinely cite EFW measures when writing about individual countries. But even a wonky economist like me realizes that there is more...
