by Dan Mitchell | Aug 22, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
If you get into the weeds of tax policy and had a contest for parts of the internal revenue code that are “boring but important,” depreciation would be at the top of the list. After all, how many people want to learn about America’s Byzantine system that imposes a...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 21, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve been accused of making supposedly inconsistent arguments against Hillary Clinton. Make up your mind, these critics say. Is she corrupt or is she a doctrinaire leftist? I always respond with the simple observation that she’s both. Not that this should come as a...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 20, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs
Back in 2009, I shared some academic research showing the unsavory link between lobbying expenditures and bailout cash from TARP. Just in case anybody naively thinks that such distasteful favor-swapping no longer occurs, here’s some more evidence. A column in the...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 17, 2016 | Blogs, Taxation
If I had to summarize my views on fiscal policy in just two sentences, here’s what I would say. Government spending undermines growth by diverting labor and capital from more productive uses to less productive uses. Tax rates on productive economic behaviors such as...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 13, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I need combat pay. Or maybe some kind of bonus for pain and suffering. First, I had to watch Donald Trump’s incoherent speech on the economy and try to decipher his mish-mash economic plan. And then, without the benefit of a lengthy vacation or counseling for...
