by Dan Mitchell | Apr 8, 2026 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I constantly remind people that government spending is the most important fiscal variable, not deficits/debt. After all, it is government spending that drains resources from the productive sector of the economy, regardless of whether it is financed...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 21, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Free Market, Government Spending
Building on yesterday’s column, let’s look at some more data about the “improbable success” of Switzerland. We’ll start with a comparison of per-capita GDP, showing Switzerland out-performing other nations (I’ve shared similar...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 28, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
When I wrote yesterday about Germany, I could imagine readers shrugging their shoulders and thinking it was just another column about European decline. Indeed, I’ve written similar columns about other welfare states such...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 5, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Elon Musk is in the news because of his opposition to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” At the risk of sounding wishy-washy, I’m not sure if he is right or wrong. The good news is that the bill prevents a massive automatic tax increase starting on January 1 of 2026. The...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 2, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As shown by the lack of spending restraint in Trump’s absurdly named One Big Beautiful Bill. there are plenty of big-government Republicans in Washington. At the risk of understatement, they are not complying with the Golden Rule of...