by Dan Mitchell | May 14, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending, Keynesian
Are there any fact checkers at the New York Times? Since they’ve allowed some glaring mistakes by Paul Krugman (see here and here), I guess the answer is no. But some mistakes are worse than others. Consider a recent column by David Stuckler of Oxford and Sanjay Basu...
by Dan Mitchell | May 2, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Keynesian
President Bush imposed a so-called stimulus plan in 2008 and President Obama imposed an even bigger “stimulus” in 2009. Based upon the economy’s performance over the past five-plus years, those plans didn’t work. Japan has spent the past 20-plus years imposing one...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 26, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Keynesian
Back in 2010, I shared a remarkable graph comparing the predictions of economists to what actually happened. Not surprisingly, the two lines don’t exactly overlap, which explains the old joke that economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions....
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 16, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian, Taxation
Good fiscal policy doesn’t require heavy lifting. Governments simply need to limit the burden of government spending. The key variable is making sure spending doesn’t consume ever-larger shares of economic output. In other words, follow Mitchell’s Golden Rule. It’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 13, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Keynesian
I’ve explained on many occasions that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was bad news for the economy. And the same can be said of Herbert Hoover’s policies, since he also expanded the burden of federal spending, raised tax rates, and increased government intervention. So...
