Tag Archives : Statism
What Does It Mean When Obama and His Former Top Economist both Reject Obamanomics?
To answer the question in the title, it means you need to read the fine print. This is because we have a president who thinks the government shouldn’t confiscate more than 20 percent of a company’s income, but he only gives that advice when he’s in Ghana. And the same president says it’s time to […]
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So-Called Paycheck Fairness Act Would Allow Government to Second-Guess Private Markets
Back in 2010, I cited the superb work of Christina Hoff Summers as she explained that we should let markets determine wages rather than giving that power to a bunch of bean-counting bureaucrats. She wrote that article because leftists at the time were pushing a so-called Paycheck Fairness Act that would have given the government […]
read more...Should International Bureaucracies Get Taxing Powers or Direct Funding?
Over the years, I’ve strenuously objected to schemes that would enable international bureaucracies to levy taxes. That’s why I’ve criticized “direct funding” proposals, most of which seem to emanate from the United Nations. A scheme to let the United Nations tax services such as air travel. A proposal, pushed by George Soros and other statists, […]
read more...Olga and Julia: Moochers of the World Unite!
Back in 2010, I declared that Olga Stefou was a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the Greek welfare state. She was one of the protesters and – if the story captured her thoughts accurately – she displayed an unlimited entitlement mentality. Sort of helps one understand why this cartoon is so accurate. Now we […]
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When Hugo Chavez Battles Supply and Demand Curves, Guess What Happens?
Haiti may be the poorest nation in the Americas. Cuba may have the dictator with the longest lifespan. But Venezuela arguably has the worst government. Not the clownish dictator, Hugo Chavez, is trying to repeal the laws of economics. How’s that working out for him? Well, here’s some of what the New York Times wrote. […]
read more...A Grim Reminder of the Pervasive Evil of Communism
Like its evil twin of Nazism, communism is an utterly despicable ideology that explicitly elevates the state over the individual. That’s actually the nicest thing that can be said about this barbaric system. If you want to begin to understand the human cost of communism, watch this short Reason TV video featuring Lee Edwards. Sometimes, […]
read more...How to Reconcile Liberty, Morality, Conservatism, and Libertarianism with Carney’s Fusionist Theorem
As a libertarian who became interested in public policy because of Ronald Reagan, it won’t surprise you to know that I’m more of a “right libertarian” than “left libertarian.” I fully agree with positions that motivate left libertarians, such as the war on drugs doing more harm than good, foreign entanglements such as NATO no […]
read more...The Price of Big Government: America Again Drops in Global Ranking of Economic Freedom
The 2012 Index of Economic Freedom has just been released. This is my favorite publication from the Heritage Foundation, and second only to the Economic Freedom of the World Index as a measure of global public policy. The news scores for 2012 are not pretty. We have bad news, we have worse news, and we […]
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Walter Williams on the Moral Difference Between Markets and Statism
Since starting this blog, I’ve cited several columns by Walter Williams (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), in large part because he’s so good at explaining economic concepts, but also because he’s very effective when demonstrating how big government undermines both freedom and […]
read more...Obama Has United the World…in Opposition to Bad U.S. Tax Policy
Last year, I came up with a saying that “Bad Government Policy Begets More Bad Government Policy” and labeled it “Mitchell’s Law” during a bout of narcissism. There are lots of examples of this phenomenon, such as the misguided War on Drugs being a precursor to intrusive, costly, and ineffective money laundering policies. Or how […]
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