by Dan Mitchell | Jul 9, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
The European Commission’s data-gathering bureaucracy, Eurostat, has just published a new report on government finances for the region. And with Greece’s ongoing fiscal turmoil getting headlines, this Eurostat publication is worthwhile because it debunks the notion,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 7, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
When I make speeches about fiscal policy, I oftentimes share a table showing the many nations that have made big progress by enforcing spending restraint over multi-year periods. I then ask audiences a rhetorical question about a possible list of nations that have...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 6, 2015 | Blogs, Economics
I’ve written over and over again that the federal government’s so-called War on Poverty has been a disaster. It’s been bad news for taxpayers, of course, but it’s also been bad news for poor people since they get trapped in dependency. So what’s the alternative? Well,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 4, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Based on a new report from the Congressional Budget Office, I wrote two weeks ago about America’s dismal long-run fiscal outlook. Simply stated, we face a Greek-style fiscal future because of changing demographics and poorly designed entitlement programs. But I was...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 3, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Back in 2010, I described the “Butterfield Effect,” which is a term used to mock clueless journalists for being blind to the real story. A former reporter for the New York Times, Fox Butterfield, became a bit of a laughingstock in the 1990s for publishing a series of...
