by Dan Mitchell | Jan 1, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Regulations, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Since yesterday’s column was a look back on the good and bad things of 2016, let’s now look forward and speculate about the good and bad things that may happen in 2017. I’m not pretending any of this is a forecast, particularly since economists have a miserable track...
by Brian Garst | Nov 1, 2016 | Opinion and Commentary
This article appeared in Cayman Financial Review on November 1, 2016. According to the simple Civics 101 view of American government, laws are passed by the legislative branch, interpreted by the judicial branch, and enforced by the executive branch. In reality, both...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 26, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations
Last year, I explained the theoretical argument against antitrust laws, pointing out that monopoly power generally exists only when government intervenes. There’s monopoly power when government takes over a sector of the economy (i.e., air traffic control, Postal...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 12, 2016 | Blogs, Crime, Financial Privacy, Society
Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, the federal government (as well as other governments around the world) began to adopt policies based on the idea that crime could be reduced if you somehow could make it very difficult for criminals to use the money they illegally...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 9, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations
Frederic Bastiat, the great French economist (yes, such creatures used to exist) from the 1800s, famously observed that a good economist always considers both the “seen” and “unseen” consequences of any action. A sloppy economist looks at the recipients of government...
