by Dan Mitchell | Oct 11, 2015 | Uncategorized
If you look at oil-rich jurisdictions around the world, it’s easy to see why experts sometimes write about the “resource curse.” Simply stated, governments don’t have much incentive to be responsible when they can use oil as a seemingly endless source of tax revenue....
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
Earlier this month, Americans for Prosperity held a “Road to Reform” event in Las Vegas. I got to be the warm-up speaker and made two simple points. First, we made a lot of fiscal progress between 2009 and 2014 because various battles over debt limits,shutdowns, and...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 6, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I have a very mixed view of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is an organization representing self-styled deficit hawks in Washington. They do careful work and I always feel confident about citing their numbers. Yet I frequently get frustrated...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 9, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
The European Commission’s data-gathering bureaucracy, Eurostat, has just published a new report on government finances for the region. And with Greece’s ongoing fiscal turmoil getting headlines, this Eurostat publication is worthwhile because it debunks the notion,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 7, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
When I make speeches about fiscal policy, I oftentimes share a table showing the many nations that have made big progress by enforcing spending restraint over multi-year periods. I then ask audiences a rhetorical question about a possible list of nations that have...
