by Dan Mitchell | Feb 7, 2018 | Blogs, Economics
On the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, I graded Trump’s overall record on economic policy and specifically observed that his trade rhetoric was worse than his trade policy. But I added a caveat about the North American Free Trade Agreement. …he’s been doing...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 28, 2018 | Blogs, Economics
The good news is that President Trump wants to boost economic growth, which is a laudable goal after the economy’s sub-par performance during the Obama years. The bad news is that he may sabotage his good reforms of tax policy and regulation with protectionism. In a...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 1, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Happy New Year! We listed yesterday the good and bad policy developments of 2017, so now let’s speculate about potential victories and defeats in 2018. Here are two things I hope will happen this year. Welfare reform – If my friends and contacts on Capitol Hill are...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 27, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
Using comparative bar charts, I’ve analyzed the economic policies of Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon. My basic conclusion was that economic policy moved in the right direction under Reagan and Clinton and moved...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 22, 2017 | Blogs, Economics
What’s the worst government statistic, based on whether it distracts from sound thinking and encourages bad policy? Well, I definitely think gross domestic income is a better measure than gross domestic product if we want insights on growth, so I’m not a big fan of...