I’ve previously blogged about the declining status of the United States, as measured by objective sources such as the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. My attitude about these developments is to sarcastically say, “Thanks for nothing, Bush and Obama.” But the real insult to injury is […]

The latest issue of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report contains some rather damning information about government incompetence in the United States. America ranks only 68th in the “Wastefulness of Government Spending” category (page 373) and 49th in the “Burden of Government Regulation” category (page 374). Singapore, by contrast, ranks first in both of […]

Last week, we compared a bone-headed display tpqof incompetence by the German government with a perverse form of harassment by a local government in the United States. We have another America-v-Europe contest, but the roles are reversed. This time, the buffoons in Washington get dinged for a spectacular screw-up, and it is a local government […]

Greetings from Montreux, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. There aren’t many places where palm trees are framed by snow-capped mountains. Heck, even I managed to take a decent photo. But let’s shift back to the world of public policy. Every time I’m in Switzerland, my admiration for the country increases. Here are five […]

I was part of a debate for an English-language Russian TV program on the international implications of economic policy, particularly with regard to the United States and China. My job was simple because I am not a big fan of either nation’s policy. Government intervention and favoritism is bad policy – regardless of skin color. My […]

Thanks to decades of reckless spending by European welfare states, the newspapers are filled with headlines about debt, default, contagion, and bankruptcy. We know that Greece and Ireland already have received direct bailouts, and other European welfare states are getting indirect bailouts from the European Central Bank, which is vying with the Federal Reserve in […]