by Dan Mitchell | Oct 16, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
If there was a special award for chutzpah, the easy winner would be the bureaucrats at the International Monetary Fund. These pampered bureaucrats get lavishly compensated and don’t have to pay tax on their bloated salaries. You would think this would make them a bit...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 3, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
According to the Bank for International Settlements, the United States has a terrible long-run fiscal outlook. Assuming we don’t implement genuine entitlement reform, the only countries in worse shape are the United Kingdom and Japan. The Organization for Economic...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 16, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Economics, Government Spending
I’ve repeatedly explained that Keynesian economics doesn’t work because any money the government spends must first be diverted from the productive sector of the economy, which means either higher taxes or more red ink. So unless one actually thinks that politicians...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 11, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending, Keynesian, Taxation
It is reported that Henry Kissinger, commenting on the Iran-Iraq war, said something to the effect that, “Too bad both sides can’t lose.” I imagine lots of people felt the same way when two of the world’s worst murderers, Hitler and Stalin, went to war in 1941. I have...
by Dan Mitchell | May 23, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
I don’t like giving international bureaucrats tax-free salaries. And it really galls me when they use their privileged positions to promote statism. So you can understand why I’m not a big fan of the International Monetary Fund. Whether we’re talking more spending,...