by Dan Mitchell | Dec 23, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I greatly admire Switzerland’s “debt brake” because it’s really a spending cap. Politicians are not allowed to increase spending faster than average revenue growth over a multi-year period, which basically means spending can only grow at the rate of inflation plus...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 31, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’m in Slovenia where I just finished indoctrinating educating a bunch of students on the importance of Mitchell’s Golden Rule as a means of restraining the burden of government spending. And I emphasized that the fiscal problem in Europe is the size of government,...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 16, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
Even though I’ve already made clear that I am less-than-overwhelmed by the thought of Mitt Romney in the White House, I worry that people will become to think I’m a GOP toady. That’s because I’ve been spending a lot of time providing favorable analysis and commentary...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 31, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
What Do Greece, the United States, and the Cayman Islands Have in Common? At first, this seems like a trick question. After all, the Cayman Islands are a fiscal paradise, with no personal income tax, no corporate income tax, no capital gains tax, and no death tax. By...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 12, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Free Market, Welfare and Entitlements
Last month, I exposed some major errors that Paul Krugman committed when he criticized Estonia for restraining the burden of government spending. My analysis will be helpful since I am now in Estonia for a speech about economic reform, and I wrote a column that was...