by Dan Mitchell | Sep 9, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Based on the dismal data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve (as well as our own experiences), we know Obamanomics doesn’t work in the United States. But we also know bigger government doesn’t work in France. And we know it doesn’t work in Japan. We know it doesn’t...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 1, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending
We’re making a tiny bit of progress in the battle against the welfare state. No, policy hasn’t changed yet, but at least there’s growing recognition that maybe, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to pay people not to work. Particularly when you trap them in lives of...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 29, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I got involved in a bit of a controversy last year about presidential profligacy. Some guy named Rex Nutting put together some data on government spending and claimed that Barack Obama was the most frugal President in recent history. I pointed out that Mr. Nutting’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 21, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As illustrated by this chart, economists are lousy forecasters. To be more specific, economists are no better than fortune tellers when trying to make short-run macroeconomic forecasts. Heck, if we actually knew what was going to happen over the next 12 months, we’d...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 20, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
About two years ago, I shared a map put together by a pro-statism organization that supposedly showed that welfare benefits were very miserly and not sufficiently generous to lift people out of poverty. My gut instinct was to reject the findings. As I wrote at the...
