by Dan Mitchell | May 11, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Europe, Keynesian
Political insiders remember Tim Geithner for his role in promoting the bailout culture and crony capitalism in Washington. Comedians remember him for the laughable hypocrisy of urging higher taxes for others while cheating on his own tax return. But I mostly think of...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 24, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Europe, Minimum Wage
I’m not a big fan of the German government. Angela Merkel has a disturbing desire to impose fiscal and political union on the European continent. And even the supposedly free market Free Democratic Party seems perfectly comfortable with a gradual descent into statism....
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 26, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Tax Harmonization, Taxation
Like Sweden and Denmark, Germany is a semi-rational welfare state. It generally relies on a market-oriented approach in areas other than fiscal policy, and it avoided the Keynesian excesses that caused additional misery and red ink in America (though it is far from...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 21, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending, Taxation
The German Chancellor and French President have put together a plan to boost growth. Sounds like a good goal, but what specifically are they proposing? Some of the obvious ideas include: Lowering tax rates to boost incentives for productive behavior. Reducing the...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 9, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
By European standards, Germany is in pretty good shape. There’s a very large welfare state and the tax burden is quite onerous, both of which hinder growth, but Germany has been more responsible than the United States in recent years. And while this may be damning...
