Beware of Greeks Accepting Gifts

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 16, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements

On rare occasions, I dream about being a politician or high-level international bureaucrat. Not because I want to be a moocher (please put me out of my misery if that ever happens), but because I periodically read about some sleazy interest group making petulant...

Opulent Conditions for International Bureaucrats While Taxpayers Struggle

by Dan Mitchell | Jan 4, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs

The International Monetary Fund is a great place to work – at least for those who don’t feel guilty about getting extravagant salaries from taxpayers. And what do IMF bureaucrats do for the money we pay them (American taxpayers finance the biggest share of the...

Even Folks at Harvard and the IMF Are Beginning to Realize You Don’t Solve an Over-Spending Problem with Higher Taxes

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 6, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation

In his latest Bloomberg column, Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute notes that research from places such as Harvard and the International Monetary Fund confirms that spending restraint is the way to successfully reduce red ink – and it’s also the way to...

The IMF Is Urging Governments to Adopt Regulatory and Tax Cartels to Benefit Politicians

by Dan Mitchell | May 2, 2010 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Tax Harmonization, Taxation, Uncategorized

Price fixing is illegal in the private sector, but unfortunately there are no rules against schemes by politicians to create oligopolies in order to prop up bad government policy. The latest example comes from the bureaucrats at the International Monetary Fund, who...