by Dan Mitchell | Dec 15, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I’ve argued before that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should be the top target of those seeking to shut down useless and counterproductive parts of the federal government. And if President-Elect Trump’s choice for HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, is...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 8, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs
I have a very consistent view of victimless crimes. I don’t approve of drugs and I’ve never used drugs, but I think the social harm of prohibition is greater than the social harm of legalization. I don’t particularly like alcohol and I am almost a teetotaler, but I’m...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 26, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations
Last year, I explained the theoretical argument against antitrust laws, pointing out that monopoly power generally exists only when government intervenes. There’s monopoly power when government takes over a sector of the economy (i.e., air traffic control, Postal...
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...
