by Dan Mitchell | Dec 23, 2017 | Blogs, Taxation, VAT
I never saw The Nightmare Before Christmas, a 1993 film. But that’s fine, because I am already dealing with my own nightmare with the holiday just around the corner. What’s haunting me is the specter of a value-added tax, which some reporters now think is a clear and...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 16, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
Greece has confirmed that a nation can spend itself into a fiscal crisis. And the Greek experience also has confirmed that bailouts exacerbate a fiscal crisis by enabling more bad policy, while also rewarding spendthrift politicians and reckless lenders (as I...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 28, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve been grousing all year that tax cuts and tax reform are jeopardized by the failure to restrain the growth of federal spending. At the start of the year, I pointed out that it would be possible to both balance the budget and approve a $3 trillion tax...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 27, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Using comparative bar charts, I’ve analyzed the economic policies of Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon. My basic conclusion was that economic policy moved in the right direction under Reagan and Clinton and moved...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 22, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
I’m not a fan of what is sometimes called the “European Project.” Yes, one of the original goals – free trade between European nations – was admirable and has generated significant benefits. But what started as a positive idea has morphed into a Brussels-based...
