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...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 8, 2016 | Blogs, Taxation
When I wrote last year about “Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Increase the Cost of College,” I explained that colleges and universities boost tuition when the government hands out more subsidies to students, so the main effect is to make higher education even more...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 3, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Education
Normally, leftists get upset if there’s a big industry that charges high prices, engages in lots of featherbedding, and manipulates the political system for handouts. But for some reason, when the industry is higher education, folks like Hillary Clinton think the...