by Dan Mitchell | Mar 30, 2018 | Blogs, Economics
What’s the best argument against statism? As a libertarian, my answer is that freedom is preferable to coercion. Freedom also ranks higher than prosperity. For instance, the government might be able to boost economic output by requiring people to work seven days...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 2, 2018 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
There’s an easy way to judge whether countries have good economic policy or bad economic policy. Simply look at the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World and check out a nation’s absolute score as well as how it ranks relative to other nations. The EFW...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 10, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation
Since there’s a big debate about whether there should be tax cuts and tax reform in the United States, let’s see what we can learn from abroad. And let’s focus specifically on whether changes in tax policy actually produce “revenue feedback” because of the Laffer...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 3, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economic Growth, Economics
Given what I wrote the other day about the statist proclivities of the OECD, here’s an item that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even though South Africa already has an excessive burden of government, the Paris-based bureaucracy wants that nation to impose even higher...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 11, 2014 | Blogs, Economics
When asked about the most worrisome statistic for a nation, I don’t say it’s the top marginal tax rate, even though I think class-warfare taxation is very poisonous for long-run economic performance. Nor do I say it’s the burden of government spending relative to...
