Statists are in a tough position. For years, they’ve been saying the United States should be more like Europe. And, as shown in these very funny cartoons by Michael Ramirez and Bob Gorrell, President Obama is a cheerleader for that effort. But now Europe’s welfare states are collapsing, so the left is scrambling to come […]

Are we about to see a new kinder-and-gentler Obama? Has the tax-and-spend President of the past four years been replaced by a fiscal moderate? That’s certainly the spin we’re getting from the White House about the President’s new budget. Let’s look at this theme, predictably regurgitated in a Washington Post report. President Obama will release […]

It’s been more than three weeks since I targeted French fiscal policy for abuse and more than one week since I wrote something negative about the French fiscal system. I must be slowing down as I get older, so it’s time of rectify this oversight. My fundamental problem with the French system is that the […]

Back in 2010, I wrote a post entitled “What’s the Ideal Point on the Laffer Curve?“ Except I didn’t answer my own question. I simply pointed out that revenue maximization was not the ideal outcome. I explained that policy makers instead should seek to maximize prosperity, and that this implied a much lower tax rate. […]

Check out some of the ridiculous details about the woman who has earned the title of California’s Golden Bureaucrat. Alameda County supervisors have really taken to heart the adage that government should run like a business — rewarding County Administrator Susan Muranishi with the Wall Street-like wage of $423,664 a year. For the rest of […]

This article appeared in PolicyMic.

In recent months, people have asked me why I’m acting all giddy and optimistic. Am I hooked on cocaine? Have I fallen in love? Did I inherit several million dollars? These questions started after I said the fiscal cliff was a smaller loss than I expected. Then people wondered what was going on when I […]

Taxpayers all across America send lots of money to Washington, DC, in part because we’re supposed to believe that redistribution is a legitimate and desirable function of the federal government. But this is a very perverse form of redistribution. All that money going to Washington helps subsidize a network of overpaid bureaucrats, fat-cat lobbyists, corrupt […]

I’m a sucker for a good flowchart because they either can help to simplify analysis or they can show how something is very complex. Some of my favorites include: This explanation of double taxation. This depiction of the no-win Greek economic crisis. Portrayals of Obamacare complexity here and here. I’d like to see a good […]

It can be very frustrating to work at the Cato Institute and fight for small government. Consider what’s happened the past couple of days. Congressman Paul Ryan introduces a budget and I dig through the numbers with a sense of disappointment because government spending will grow by an average of 3.4 percent annually, much faster […]