by Dan Mitchell | Sep 15, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agree on things, it’s always bad news for taxpayers. They both want to boost the capital gains tax rate on private equity investment. They both want to let the entitlement problem fester and worsen. They both want more federally...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 13, 2016 | Blogs, Financial Privacy, Monetary Policy
The War against Cash continues. In Part I, we looked at the argument that cash should be banned or restricted so governments could more easily collect additional tax revenue. In Part II, we reviewed the argument that cash should be curtailed so that governments could...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 9, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations
Frederic Bastiat, the great French economist (yes, such creatures used to exist) from the 1800s, famously observed that a good economist always considers both the “seen” and “unseen” consequences of any action. A sloppy economist looks at the recipients of government...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 25, 2016 | Blogs, Economics
While economists are famous for their disagreements (and their incompetent forecasts), there is universal consensus in the profession that demand curves slope downward. That may be meaningless jargon to non-economists, but it simply means that people buy less of...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 21, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve been accused of making supposedly inconsistent arguments against Hillary Clinton. Make up your mind, these critics say. Is she corrupt or is she a doctrinaire leftist? I always respond with the simple observation that she’s both. Not that this should come as a...