by Dan Mitchell | Aug 24, 2021 | Blogs, States, Taxation
I’ve been asked why I periodically mock politicians. The simple answer is that they often deserve our scorn. It’s not that they’re evil or bad people, but their incentive structure generally leads them to make shallow,...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 4, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
I’ve written many times about how big businesses often climb in bed with politicians to lobby for anti-market policies such as subsidies, bailouts, and protectionism. To get these special favors, they often deploy the “baptists and...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 2, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, Uncategorized
I recently explained the evolution of taxation – and the unfortunate consequences of income taxation – to a seminar in the country of Georgia. One of my main points was that income taxes are a relatively new source of revenue. The first income tax was adopted in the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 28, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
Back in 2019, I listed “Six Principles to Guide Policy on Government Spending.” If I was required to put it all in one sentence (sort of), here’s the most important thing to understand about fiscal policy. This does not mean, by the way, that we should...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 24, 2021 | Blogs, Capital Gains, Taxation
It’s presumably not controversial to point out that the Washington Post (like much of the media) leans to the left. Indeed, the paper’s bias has given me plenty of material over the years. As you can see, what really irks me is when the bias translates...
