It’s a bad idea when governments demand information on your bank accounts and investments so they can impose economically destructive double taxation. It’s a worse idea when they also demand the right to tax economic activity in other jurisdictions (otherwise known as “worldwide taxation“). And it’s the worst possible development when governments decide that they should impose […]

If some special-interest lobbies give money so that a left-wing group can propose something like a value-added tax to finance bigger government, that’s no surprise. And if a bunch of subsidy recipients donate money to Barack Obama or some other statist politician because they hope for new programs, that’s also standard procedure in DC. I’ll fight these […]

If you appreciate the common-sense notion of the Laffer Curve, you’re in for a treat. Today’s column will discuss the revelation that Francois Hollande’s class-warfare tax hikes have not raised nearly as much money as predicted. And after the recent evidence about the failure of tax hikes in Hungary, Ireland,Detroit, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this news from the BBC probably should be […]

here aren’t any nations with pure libertarian economic policy, but there are a handful of jurisdictions that deserve praise, either because they have comparatively low levels of statism or because they have made big strides in the right direction. Hong Kong and Singapore are examples of the former, and Switzerland deserves honorable mention. And if we look at […]

I’ve already written about how the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is heavily subsidized by American taxpayers, is advocating for bigger government. I’m especially irked that the OECD has gotten in bed with nutjobs from the Occupy movement and also joined forces with the union bosses to push for statist policies. So I guess I shouldn’t […]

The establishment fervently believes that more money should come to Washington so that politicians have greater ability to buy votes. That’s why statists from both parties are so viscerally hostile to Grover Norquist’s no-tax-hike pledge. They view it as an obstacle to bigger government. And it also explains why politicians who raise taxes are showered with praise, especially […]

I’m a supporter of a single-rate tax regime, especially if there’s no double taxation of income that is saved and invested. That’s why I like the flat tax. But I’ve expressed concern about the national sales tax, even though it’s basically the same as a flat tax (the only real difference is that the flat tax takes a bite […]

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a widespread consensus that high tax rates were economically misguided. Many Democrats, for instance, supported the 1986 Tax Reform Act that lowered the top tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent (albeit offset by increased double taxation and more punitive depreciation rules). And even in the 1990s, many on […]