by Dan Mitchell | Nov 4, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Being a glass-half-full kind of guy, I look for kernels of good news when examining economic policy around the world. I once even managed to find something to praise about French tax policy. And I can assure you that’s not a very easy task. I particularly try to find...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 24, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Okay, I’ll admit the title of this post is an exaggeration. How to fix the mess at the IRS is a fiscal policy question, and that requires tax reform rather than spending restraint. But allow me a bit of literary license. We just had a big debt limit battle in...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 19, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As we get closer to the debt limit, the big spenders in Washington are becoming increasingly hysterical about the supposed possibility of default if politicians lose the ability to borrow more money. I testified yesterday to the Joint Economic Committee on “The...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 1, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian, Taxation
I want a smaller burden of government spending, so you can only imagine how frustrating it is for me to observe the fight in Europe. On one side of the debate you have pro-spenders, who call themselves “growth” advocates, but are really just Keynesians. On the other...
by Dan Mitchell | May 13, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
The main goal of fiscal policy should be to shrink the burden of government spending as a share of economic output. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve this modest goal. All that’s required is to make sure the private sector grows faster than the...