by Dan Mitchell | Apr 24, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
With the exception of a few top-notch thinkers such as Pierre Bessard and Allister Heath, there are very few people in Europe who can intelligently analyze public policy, particularly with regard to fiscal issues. I don’t know if Fredrik Erixon of the Brussels-based...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 3, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Society, Welfare and Entitlements
Why is big government bad for an economy? The easy answer is that big government usually means high tax rates, and this penalizes work, saving, investment, and entrepreneurship. And perhaps some of the spending is financed by borrowing, and this diverts money from...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 27, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation
I speculated last year that the political elite finally might be realizing that higher tax rates are not the solution to Greece’s fiscal situation. Simply stated, you can only squeeze so much blood out of a stone, and pushing tax rates higher cripples growth and...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 10, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I write about insanely stupid government policies. But I know I get more motivated to fight big government. How can anyone want to give more money and power to politicians, for instance, after reading these comparisons of dumb...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 1, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Europe
Last January, I identified five things that worried me for 2011. Here’s what had me concerned, along with some ex post facto analysis about whether I was right to fret: 1. A back-door bailout of the states from the Federal Reserve – Thankfully, I was way off base with...
