There’s a rather simple solution to Europe’s fiscal crisis, but politicians will never do the right thing unless every other option is exhausted. That’s why American taxpayers should not be involved in any sort of European bailout, either directly or indirectly. This cartoon captures my sentiment. At the risk of being picky, however, I would […]

I’ve done a video on excessive compensation for bureaucrats and I’ve written many times about wasteful spending, but here’s a cartoon that manages to effectively combine both concepts. If your eyes are getting old like mine, you may need to click on the image to read everything. This cartoon is good, but here’s another that […]

This is probably my favorite political cartoon, and this one is the most-viewed post in the history of this blog, but here’s one probably should be near the top because it so perfectly captures the mindset of the political class. Though if you want to teach economics, here are good cartoons about incentives, Keynesian economics, […]

In what will probably become an annual tradition, here is the Halloween tax video I posted last year. The last 30 seconds of the three-minute video actually contain some very good economics, roughly akin to this classic cartoon. Yes, incentives matter. And since it is Halloween, these two parodies of The Candyman song (here and […]

…Well, I’m not sure what it means. But it sure doesn’t make sense when you look at the big picture. A credit card company wouldn’t increase a deadbeat’s credit limit, so why is it a sign of fiscal prudence to give Uncle Sam more borrowing authority? That being said, I never thought it was realistic […]

In the spirit of the budget battle, readers have to eat their peas (i.e., endure my analysis) before getting to the dessert menu of jokes from the late-night comics. The big news today is that Speaker Boehner had to cancel a vote on his “Budget Control Act” last night. But other than the political-drama angle, […]

I hope the Speaker resists this siren song and says no to higher taxes.

Kudos to the Concerned Women for America, not only for this clever video, but also for putting the focus on the burden of government spending rather than the symptom of too much red ink.

Like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence is filled with old-fashioned ideas about liberty, freedom, and restrictions on the power of government. But that’s no fun, at least if you’re a member of the ruling class. Heck, some people are using those musty old documents to argue that the crowd in Washington doesn’t have unlimited […]

My Cato colleague, Mark Calabria, recently explained how the minimum wage destroys jobs, and I’ve written on several occasions why government-mandated wages can create unemployment by making it unprofitable to hire people with low work skills and/or poor work histories. And I’ve attacked Republicans for going along with these job-killing policies, and also pointed out […]