by Dan Mitchell | Mar 26, 2014 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a widespread consensus that high tax rates were economically misguided. Many Democrats, for instance, supported the 1986 Tax Reform Act that lowered the top tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent (albeit offset by increased...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 2, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
On several occasions, I’ve observed that the poverty rate in America was steadily falling, but that progress came to a halt in the mid-1960s when the government declared a War on Poverty. And I almost always included a chart showing the annual poverty rate over...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 8, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The title of this piece has an asterisk because, unfortunately, we’re not talking about progress on the Laffer Curve in the United States. Even Keynes himself accepted this. Like many other economists throughout the ages, he understood and agreed with the principles...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 18, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Health Care, Welfare and Entitlements
Obamacare was put together by people who don’t understand economics. This is probably the understatement of the year since I could be referring to many features of the bad law. The higher tax burden on saving and investment, making an anti-growth tax system even...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 5, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
I periodically cite new academic research about tax policy and economic activity. I sometimes even publicize research from international bureaucracies showing the link between taxes and growth. I’m not naive enough to think that any particular study will change minds,...
