by Dan Mitchell | Oct 4, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Supply Side, Tax Competition, Taxation
Yesterday’s column featured some of Milton Friedman’s wisdom from 50 years ago on how a high level of societal capital (work ethic, spirit of self-reliance, etc) is needed if we want to limit government. Today, let’s look at what he said back then about that era’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 24, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Supply Side, Taxation
I participated in a debate yesterday on “tax havens” for the BBC World Service. If you read last month’s two-part series on the topic (here and here), you already know I’m a big defender of low-tax jurisdictions. But it’s always interesting to interact with people...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 28, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The good news is that Joe Biden has not embraced many of Bernie Sanders’ worst tax ideas, such as imposing a wealth tax or hiking the top income tax rate to 52 percent.. The bad news is that he nonetheless is supporting a wide range of punitive tax increases....
by Dan Mitchell | May 12, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
I’ve explained the economics of taxation, which is based on the common-sense notion that you get less productive economic activity when taxes drive a bigger wedge between pre-tax income and post-tax consumption. Simply stated, the more you tax of something, the less...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 30, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Supply Side, Taxation
In some cases, politicians actually understand the economics of tax policy. It’s quite common, for instance, to hear them urging higher taxes on tobacco because they want to discourage smoking. I don’t think it’s their job to tell people how to live their lives, but I...