by Dan Mitchell | Jun 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Illinois is a mess. Taxes and spending already are too high, and huge unfunded liabilities point to an even darker future. Simply stated, politicians and government employee unions have created an unholy alliance to extract as much money as possible from the state’s...
by Dan Mitchell | May 11, 2017 | Blogs, Immigration, Society
Although I gave him a good grade for his first 100 days, it’s no secret that I’m not overly optimistic about the long-term policy implications of the Trump presidency. Simply stated, I fear he’ll wind up being a big-government Republican like Bush (either one) or...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 23, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Free Market
When trying to educate people about the superiority of free enterprise over statism, I generally show them long-run data comparing market-oriented jurisdictions with those that have state-driven economies. Here are some of my favorite examples. North Korea vs. South...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 8, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Crime, Society, Welfare and Entitlements
Whenever mass shootings occur, some people quickly jump to conclusions before there’s any evidence. Folks on the right are occasionally guilty of immediately assuming Islamic terrorism, which is somewhat understandable. Folks on the left, meanwhile, are sometimes...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 26, 2016 | Blogs, Economics
There’s a somewhat famous quote from Adam Smith (“there is a great deal of ruin in a nation“) about the ability of a country to survive and withstand lots of bad public policy. I’ve tried to get across the same point by explaining that you don’t need perfect policy,...
