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.
The state of the Union is not strong
Economic growth has been anemic. Household income is down. Labour force participation is the lowest in decades. Barack Obama's legacy is dismal, and the state of the Union is not at all strong
- 22 January 2015
Economics lessons from Scandinavia
There are some really creepy examples of failed government-run health care in Sweden: A man who had his penis amputated because he was first misdiagnosed and then forced to wait five months for a follow-up examination? Tells quite a story, doesn't it?
- 18 January 2015
The world's worst bureaucrat loafers
We've had the Italian healthcare official who turned up for work for 15 days in 9 years. Then there's a bureaucrat paid hundreds of thousands for not turning up at all in 2012. Now we have an Indian who hadn't been to work since 1990. Long live big government!
- 12 January 2015
What’s a “Fair Share” for upper-income taxpayers?
The class-warfare agenda is unfair and discriminatory. But it’s also terribly misguided because high tax rates are bad for growth and competitiveness. Then again we could go for a 100% tax rate. It happened in France!
- 3 January 2015
How Leftists accidentally get it right
Leftists are often so clueless about economic and social policy that they frequently end up proving their Right-leaning opponents' case, even while attempting to refute it
- 16 December 2014
Why Europe is so far behind the United States
The U.S. is not well run economically, but the EU appears to be on a suicide mission motivated by ignorance about basic economics and the self-serving greed of the political elite at the European Commission
- 4 December 2014
Singapore: A remarkable free-market success story
Singapore's corporate tax rate is just 17 percent and the top tax rate for households is only 20 percent. In other words, there’s no Obama-Hollande class warfare against successful taxpayers. Lesson? Free markets create wealth; socialism creates poverty
- 29 November 2014
Hong Kong vs Cuba: prosperity vs socialist poverty
Through much of the 1950s, Hong Kong and Cuba were economically similar, and both were very close to the world average. Since then socialist Cuba has stagnated in poverty while Hong Kong has soared to prosperity. Lessons?
- 27 November 2014
The odious corruption enabled by big government
Whatever you may have persuaded yourself to believe, you do not live under neo-liberalism. This is the era of corporatism: big government, big business and political parties rigging the game in their favour
- 24 November 2014
Social capital, and cultural prerequisites of success
The question of what kind of cultural prerequisites are necessary for economic success has been debated and has generated intense controversy for centuries. So what's the answer?
- 20 November 2014
Government screws up everything: The internet version
Governments generally have never been great at managing innovation. Not content with destroying the old economy, they're now doing their best to destroy the new one too
- 15 November 2014
Why libertarians both hate and mock big government
Using anti-terrorism laws to enforce television licences in Britain and a US tax code that started out 2 pages long and is now 75,000 pages long are just 2 reasons why libertarians loathe big government
- 8 November 2014
How Washington profits by pillaging America
As a taxpayer, I don’t like overpaid bureaucrats. But as an economist, I’m even more upset that human capital is being misallocated to unproductive purposes. Big government means big waste
- 5 November 2014
Another edition of “I Can’t Believe Hillary Clinton Actually Said That”
Hillary Clinton doesn't understand the war on drugs, economics, or, amongst other things, how and why growth happens. Apart from that she is perfectly qualified to win the White House in 2016
- 29 October 2014
The Italian job: how to ruin your own economy
Italian state interventionists might well be described as "Italy's economic suicide movement". The biggest victim of the “pro-worker” interventions are…you guessed it…workers. Staggering!
- 28 October 2014
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