by Dan Mitchell | Feb 5, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation, VAT
The left is very clever about accepting “compromise,” so long as the result is a larger burden of government. This is one of the reasons why I’m so concerned about Senator Cruz’s proposal for a value-added tax. Even though he wants a VAT for good reasons (to finance...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 3, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
If pessimism was an Olympic event, I used to think I might be favored to win a medal. After all, growing levels of dependency outside of Washington and rampant corruption inside of Washington sometimes lead me to conclude that America is doomed to a Greek fiscal...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 28, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
If everyone has a cross to bear in life, mine is the perplexing durability of Keynesian economics. I thought the idea was dead when Keynesians incorrectly said you couldn’t have simultaneously rising inflation and unemployment like we saw in the 1970s. Then I thought...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 27, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
The Congressional Budget Office has just released its new 10-year fiscal forecast and the numbers are getting worse. Most people are focusing on the fact that the deficit is rising rather than falling and that annual government borrowing will again climb above $1...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 21, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
This isn’t intentional, but there’s been a European theme to this week’s posts. I wrote yesterday about economic chaos in France, and the previous day I wrote about the grim consequences of Italian statism. Today, we’re going to look at Greece. In the past, I’ve...
