by Dan Mitchell | Oct 27, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
Folks of a certain age, who watched ABC’s Wide World of Sports, will remember the phrase “the agony of defeat.” Well, that’s what Richard Epstein and I endured Tuesday night at the Intelligence Squared debate in New York City. We were battling against two Keynesians,...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 24, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
A couple of months ago, after reading an excellent column in the semi-official newspaper of the Vatican, I joked that we should send Obama to Rome for an economics lesson. I now completely retract that statement. There may be some economically astute people who write...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 23, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Almost two years ago, I wrote that bailing out Greece was misguided because it would dig the debt hole deeper. More recently, I wrote an I-told-you-so post that looked at my four original predictions and patted myself on the back for being accurate (not that it took...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 18, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Sounds like the beginning of a joke, sort of like, “A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar…” But I have a serious point to make. I’m currently in Anguilla (yes, this is just one of the sacrifices I make in the fight for liberty), where I just gave a speech...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 17, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
The welfare states of Europe are in deep trouble. Decades of over-taxing and over-spending have sapped economic vitality and produced high levels of debt. The high debt levels, by themselves, might not be a problem if European governments implemented good policy....