by Dan Mitchell | Sep 5, 2025 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Back in 2012, I mocked French politicians because they were whining about upper-income taxpayers escaping from France. That column discussed well-to-do French taxpayers moving to Belgium, which is also a high-tax welfare state, but has the advantage of...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 19, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Taxation
I’ve written before how ordinary workers are basically tax slaves in Europe. Today, let’s look at new evidence about the absurd extent of taxation in Europe. Here’s a chart shared by Michael Arouet, showing how much it costs a...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 29, 2025 | Blogs, Taxation
Basic economy theory, depicted by supply-and-demand curves, tells us that taxes will cause “deadweight loss.” This is the economic activity that no longer occurs because taxes creates a wedge between buyers and sellers. And this analysis applies whether...
by Dan Mitchell | May 2, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Just a few months ago, I wrote about Germany’s fiscal decay. Over the past eight years, government spending has grown much faster than the private sector, thus violating the Golden Rule of fiscal policy. Given the shift to bad policy in Germany, I...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 30, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I wrote a two-part series (here and here) in 2022 predicting that Italy was at risk of suffering a fiscal crisis. If and when it occurs, it will be because investors decide that Italy’s government might default (i.e., be unable to make payments on its debt)....