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 | Jan 21, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
A bunch of well-connected rich people and government officials are descending upon Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. This upsets many people, and perhaps with some justification. After all, bad things often happen when big business and...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 8, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I’ve shared many charts over the years, but two of the most compelling ones deal with poverty. The numbers in this chart, which are based on Census Bureau data and scholarly studies (see here, here, here, and here), show that the poverty rate was steadily...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 20, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
The welfare state is a nightmare. Programs such as Medicaid are fiscal catastrophes. The food stamp program is riddled with waste. The EITC is easily defrauded, even sending checks to prisoners. And housing subsidies are a recipe for the worst forms of social...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 1, 2013 | Blogs, Free Market
Forget the debate over whether Obama is a socialist. Now we’re discussing whether Jesus is for big government. Or, to be more accurate, the Pope has started a debate about whether free markets are bad, particularly for the poor. Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute...
