Daniel J. Mitchell is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, the free-market, Washington D.C. think tank. His articles are cross-posted on his blog, by agreement.
How to sponge off taxpayers, and do it in style
To be honest, cutting off your own foot to maintain handouts from the state sets something of a low point in welfare sponging. But boy, are there some competitors...
- 23 April 2014
Another amazing example of government stupidity
We have many examples of government stupidity, but today's story could win a prize for the most profound and disturbing of all
- 20 April 2014
A low tax fantasy world
How marvellous it would be to live in a free market economy with low taxes, free from government waste and the dirty deals done between the state and big business to the detriment of us all
- 16 April 2014
If big government is bad, how has the West prospered?
Libertarianism and free market economics will not survive without an answer to the conundrum of rising prosperity against a backdrop of increasing big government. Dan Mitchell from Cato has that answer
- 12 April 2014
Obama's broken window: Claiming Obamacare to be a success
Are we really supposed to applaud the fact that a small fraction of the US population has been coerced to sign up for Obamacare?
- 10 April 2014
Using dishonesty to advance the statist agenda
Why do Right-wing parties, the US Republicans included, continue to support big state bureacracy and the international organisations, like the OECD, that underpin modern corporatism?
- 7 April 2014
Is government debt a problem?
Though many argue otherwise, one of our biggest problems - both today and in the future - is the burden of government spending
- 3 April 2014
Great Moments in Prohibition and the Drug War
Though not every enforcement action leads to grotesque abuse of human rights, sometimes the war on drugs merely exposes the stupidity of government. We should re-think America’s foolish Drug War
- 1 April 2014
Just how stupid can government get?
From parking metres to prostitution, the hilarious stupidity of statism never ceases to amaze, as Dan Mitchell from Cato shows
- 26 March 2014
Want to help the poor? Drop "inequality". Do it now
The left mistakenly acts as if the economy is a fixed pie and one person’s success necessarily means the rest of us are worse off. So in an effort to increase the relative amounts received by the poor, they pursue policies that cause the pie to shrink
- 19 March 2014
Putinomics is killing Russia and will kill Crimea too
Putinonomics is a sordid mix of cronyism, regulation, corruption, and weak rule of law. Post-communist countries that chose western-market models have fared far better as the graphs (below) dramatically illustrate
- 17 March 2014
Sweden: Almost a libertarian role model...almost
Sweden used to be the quintessential cradle-to-grave socialist, welfare state. But it's now looked favourably upon by libertarians. Well, yes, there are those mistakenly-amputated- penis stories about their socialised medicine...
- 14 March 2014
Socialists, fascists, corporatists all love big government
Socialism, Marxism, and fascism may have specific motivations and characteristics, but they’re all forms of statism, and they all bring misery to ordinary people
- 11 March 2014
In praise of Germany. Well, kind of, relatively...
The moral of the story is that Germany shows that good things happen when spending is restrained, but long-run good performance requires long-run spending discipline
- 7 March 2014
Not capitalism; cronyism: Big government makes it so
For all intents and purposes, big government in Washington has created a niche market for insiders who learn the specialized skill of transferring money from those who earned it to those with political pull. It's the same across the Western world
- 4 March 2014
Latest on the blog
- NY Democrat pleads with Republican not to share document proposing confiscation of guns
- Sunday Times blood libel cartoon, on Holocaust Memorial Day no less
- Oregon woman raped after police refuse to send out response unit
- Palestinian jailed for Facebook like
- 'Muslim Patrol' vigilantes attempt to control London streets
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