by Dan Mitchell | Oct 16, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I’ve learned that it’s more important to pay attention to hard numbers rather than political rhetoric. Republicans, for instance, love to beat their chests about spending restraint, but I never believe them without first checking the numbers. Likewise, Democrats have...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 13, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Back in 2013, when I was still doing a “question of the week” column, I suggested that Australian was the best option for those contemplating a new home in the event of some sort of Greek-style fiscal collapse in the United States. I pointed out that America wasn’t in...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 9, 2017 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs
Puerto Rico is getting lots of attention because Hurricane Maria caused a tremendous amount of economic damage. That leads to an important discussion about the role of government – particularly the federal government – when there is a natural disaster (and a secondary...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 6, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Imagine that we’re in a parallel universe and that you’re the lookout on the Titanic. But in this make-believe world, you have all sorts of fancy radar that allows you to detect icebergs with lots of advance notice. Furthermore, imagine that you detect danger and give...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 18, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
Keynesian economics is like Freddie Krueger, constantly reappearing after logical people assumed it was dead. The fact that various stimulus schemes inevitably fail should be the death knell for the theory, which is basically the “perpetual motion machine” of...
