by Dan Mitchell | Apr 28, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
I already shared my thoughts about the value-added tax when discussing fiscal policy with an economist at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. Here’s some of what I said about tax progressivity and the welfare state. The bottom line is that the American tax...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 12, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Free Market, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Since this is my last full day in Sweden, I want to build upon my previous two columns (on long-run tax policy and pandemic spending policy). We’ll start with this video explaining that Sweden is not socialist. Johan Norberg is correct. Sweden does not...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 11, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When I wrote about long-run policy lessons from the pandemic, I mostly focused on the incompetence of the bureaucrats at the FDA and CDC. I also wrote that Sweden had a very sensible approach. Politicians did not...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 10, 2024 | Blogs, Taxation
Since I’m currently in Stockholm and just gave a speech about fiscal policy, let’s take a look at Swedish taxation. Like most western nations, Sweden became a rich nation in the 1800s and early 1900s when taxes were modest and the burden of...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 29, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Scandinavian countries have very unusual economic policy. They are very free market-oriented with regards to most types of economic policy. The glaring exception is fiscal policy, where these nations get very low scores. The burden of...
