by Dan Mitchell | Mar 19, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation
Cigarette butt, to be more specific. All over the world, governments impose draconian taxes on tobacco, and then they wind up surprised that projected revenues don’t materialize. We’ve seen this in Bulgaria and Romania, and we’ve seen this Laffer Curve effect in...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 24, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
With the exception of a few top-notch thinkers such as Pierre Bessard and Allister Heath, there are very few people in Europe who can intelligently analyze public policy, particularly with regard to fiscal issues. I don’t know if Fredrik Erixon of the Brussels-based...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 2, 2012 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I wrote last year about a backlash from long-suffering Greek taxpayers. These people – the ones pulling the wagon rather than riding in the wagon – are being raped and pillaged by a political class that is trying to protect the greedy interest groups that benefit from...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 8, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Free Market
I’ve always been proud of my Irish heritage, but now I’m having to reconsider. As is so often the case when something goes awry, the blame belongs to a politician (this Craig Ferguson joke is right on the mark). Michael Higgins, the President-Elect of Ireland, has...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 24, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
The Congressional Budget Office has just released the update to its Economic and Budget Outlook. There are several things from this new report that probably deserve commentary, including a new estimate that unemployment will “remain above 8 percent until 2014.” This...
