by Dan Mitchell | Mar 16, 2014 | Blogs, Economics
With Crimea potentially breaking away from Ukraine and the ongoing risk of conflict, it’s time to revisit the topic. I explained a few weeks ago that decentralization was one way of defusing the crisis. Now Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute has...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 1, 2014 | Blogs, Uncategorized
Ukraine is in the news and that’s not a good thing. I’m not a foreign policy expert, to be sure, but it can’t be a positive sign when nations with nuclear weapons start squabbling with each other. And that’s what’s happening now that Russia is supposedly occupying...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 19, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs
After reading a story about economic liberalization in Cuba, I wondered (somewhat tongue in cheek) whether we should trade Obama for Castro. I also blogged about the former socialist president of Brazil, who seemed to have more sense than Obama because he recognized...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 20, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs
I’ve already commented on Cuba’s surprising announcement to slash the number of government workers. And I’ve complained about the federal workforce expanding in the United States. This is not what one would expect when comparing policy developments in a communist...
by Brian Garst | Sep 3, 2010 | Blogs, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Excise taxes, where government taxes the sale of particular goods, are usually levied with the excuse that consumption of a good or engagement in a certain activity is harmful for individuals. If this were actually true, you’d expect government bureaucrats to...