by Dan Mitchell | Jan 16, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When politicians create programs and announce projects, they routinely lie about the real costs. Their primary goal is to get initial approval for various boondoggles and they figure it will be too late to reverse path once it becomes apparent that something will cost...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 30, 2016 | Blogs, Economics
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (or like Donald Sutherland in Animal House), I’m going to repeat myself for the umpteenth time and state that the United States has a big long-run problem. To be specific, the burden of government spending will inexorably...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 26, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Earlier this year, I criticized the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for endorsing an orgy of Keynesian spending. Did my criticism have an effect? Well, the bureaucrats in Paris just issued a new report that bluntly suggests a reorientation of...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 8, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I’m generally a fan of Australia. I wrote my dissertation on the country’s private Social Security system, and I’m always telling policy makers we should copy their approach. The Aussies also abolished death taxes, which was a very admirable choice. I even wrote that...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 3, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
In 2008, government spending consumed 50.9 percent of economic output in Greece according to OECD fiscal data. That same year, Greece’s score from Economic Freedom of the World was 7.12 (on a 0-10 scale), which was rather poor for a supposedly developed country and...
