by Dan Mitchell | Jun 15, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
One of the core principles of economics is that prices are determined by supply and demand. That includes the price of labor – i.e., the wages received by workers. Another core principle is that taxes create distortions by reducing demand and supply. Which is why it’s...
by Dan Mitchell | May 7, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When I wrote about “crazy Bernie Sanders” in 2016, I wasn’t just engaging in literary hyperbole. The Vermont Senator is basically an unreconstructed leftist with a disturbing affinity for crackpot ideas and totalitarian regimes. His campaign agenda that year was an...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 24, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
A few years ago, John Stossel did an undercover investigation of a government job-training program and he found that the operation was basically a scam. Not that we should be surprised. Back in 2014, I explained to a C-Span audience that a healthy private sector was...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 8, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
There is a lot of good news about the job market in America. The official unemployment rate, released just yesterday, is down to 4.1 percent, which is the lowest its been since the end of the Clinton years. Even more impressive, the number of people getting...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 1, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
The notion that government should automatically give everyone money – a policy known as “universal basic income” – is now getting a lot of attention. From an economic perspective, I acknowledge that the idea should not be summarily rejected. Here’s some of what I...