Tag Archives : Statism
America’s Superior Social Capital
Social attitudes play a large role in determining a nation’s long-run prosperity. But how easily can they be changed?
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Another Edition of “I Can’t Believe Hillary Clinton Actually Said That”
Will this be the “spread the wealth around” of the 2016 campaign?
read more...Has Italy Passed the Point of No Return for Statism and Big Government?
Decades of large government are taking their toll on Italy. Past generations mortgaged the future to support unsustainable policies, and now the bills are coming due.
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The Radical Environmental Agenda Should Be Rejected, even if Global Warming Is Real
I believe that protecting the environment is both a good thing and a legitimate function of government. But I’m rational. So while I want limits on pollution, such policies should be determined by cost-benefit analysis. Banning automobiles doubtlessly would reduce pollution, for instance, but the economic cost would be catastrophic. On the other hand, it’s good to […]
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Statist Policy and the Great Depression
It’s difficult to promote good economic policy when some policy makers have a deeply flawed grasp of history. This is why I’ve tried to educate people, for instance, that government intervention bears the blame for the 2008 financial crisis, not capitalism or deregulation. Going back in time, I’ve also explained the truth about “sweatshops” and “robber barons.” […]
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Corporate Welfare: Can Republicans Kick the Habit?
I periodically try to explain that there’s a big difference between being pro-market and pro-business. Simply stated, policy makers shouldn’t try to penalize businesses with taxes,mandates, and regulations. But neither should politicians seek to subsidize businesses. That’s why I’m against bailouts, subsidies, and other distortions that provide special favors for politically connected companies. I have nothing against companies earning money, to be sure, but […]
read more...Financed by American Tax Dollars, the OECD Endorses Obama’s Statist Agenda for the U.S. Economy
I hate to sound like a broken record, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is once again pushing for bigger and more intrusive in the United States. The international bureaucracy’s “Economic Survey” of the United States reads like it was produced by some interns at the Democratic National Committee. Since the OECD […]
read more...The Simple Lesson We Should Learn from Global Economics
I very rarely feel sorry for statists. After all, these are the people who think that their feelings of envy and inadequacy justify bigger and more coercive government. And I get especially irked when I think about how their authoritarian policies will hurt the most vulnerablein society. But I nonetheless feel sorry for statists when I […]
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It Doesn’t Seem Possible, but France Is Going from Bad to Worse
Remember when Paul Krugman warned that there was a plot against France? He asserted that critics wanted to undermine the great success of France’s social model. I agreed with Krugman, at least in the limited sense that there is a plot against France. But I explained that the conspiracy to hurt the nation was being led […]
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The Federal Bagpipe Police?!?
I’ve shared horror stories about government thuggery and I’ve shared horror stories about government stupidity. Thanks to Mark Steyn, we have a story that exemplifies both the brain-dead nature of the public sector and the nasty nature of our bureaucratic overlords. You may have read about the federal milk police. Well, here’s some of what Mark wrote about the Kafkaesque legal […]
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