by Dan Mitchell | Aug 14, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Economics, Government Spending
I’ve written (some would say excessively) about the fact that America has too many bureaucrats and that they’re paid too much. That’s true in Washington. That’s true at the state level. And it’s true for local governments. But since I’m a big believer in beating a...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 20, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Federalism is great for many reasons. When you have dozens of states with the freedom to choose different policies, you get lots of innovation and diversity, which helps identify policies that work. You also can minimize the cost of mistakes. When a policy error...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 26, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I generally focus on the profligate habits and abusive tactics of the federal government in Washington, but that doesn’t mean other levels of government are well behaved. In a column for the Washington Post, Catherine Rampell outlines some of the reprehensible ways...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 2, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs
A story in Fortune reports that government corruption at the state level is very costly. …corruption is everywhere, in one form or another. And it’s costing U.S. citizens big time. A new study from researchers at the University of Hong Kong and Indiana University...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 28, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
There are all sorts of ways to measure the burden of government spending. The most obvious approach is to look at the share of economic output consumed by the public sector. That’s what I did, for instance, when comparing fiscal policy in France and Switzerland. And...
