by Dan Mitchell | Dec 9, 2013 | Blogs, Capital Gains, Economics, Taxation
Back in the 1960s, Clint Eastwood starred in a movie entitled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I was thinking that might be a good title for today’s post about some new research by Michelle Harding, a tax economist for the OECD. But then I realized that her study on...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 8, 2013 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The title of this piece has an asterisk because, unfortunately, we’re not talking about progress on the Laffer Curve in the United States. Even Keynes himself accepted this. Like many other economists throughout the ages, he understood and agreed with the principles...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 6, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
It’s no secret that I dislike the value-added tax. But this isn’t because of its design. The VAT, after all, would be (presumably) a single-rate, consumption-based system, just like the flat tax and national sales tax. And that’s a much less destructive way of raising...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 3, 2013 | Blogs, Taxation
There are many reason I don’t like Obamacare, including its punitive impact on taxpayers and the way it takes our healthcare system even further from a market-based approach. But now I’m increasingly worried Obamacare also is creating a playground for hackers and...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 7, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, States, Tax Competition, Taxation
We know that countries suffer when taxes get too high, in part because investors, entrepreneurs, and other successful taxpayers escape to jurisdiction with less oppressive fiscal regimes. France is a glaring example. On steroids. We know that states also suffer when...