Topic: Fiscal Policy

Economic History, Fiscal Policy, Government, Public Choice and Public Policy

Adam Smith, Capitation, and the Nonsense That Is the Proposed Wealth Tax

– November 11, 2021

“While the economic implications of this proposal are sufficiently flimsy to discount its claimed purpose of revenue generation, the proposed wealth tax faces a greater obstacle to its adoption: it is blatantly unconstitutional.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Fiscal Policy, Government

Biden’s Plan to “Tax The Rich” Will Cost the Middle Class

– November 10, 2021

“With huge budget deficits, all it would take would be some future crisis for this tax to look like a good option to policy makers. And once the rich are subject to the tax, you will be next.” ~ Randall G. Holcombe

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Government

The Great Tax Gap Flap

– November 10, 2021

“Americans do not want to return to the days when they deliberately overpaid their taxes in order to avoid a nasty audit. And certainly any hint that the IRS was auditing middle class Americans for partisan reasons would be revolutionary in more ways than one.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Crisis, Environmentalism, Fiscal Policy, International

Asia, Not the US Is the Main Source of Global Warming

– November 5, 2021

“Spending endless billions on lucrative subsidies for electric cars, solar and wind farms, and other boondoggles could not possibly make much difference to future worldwide greenhouse gas emissions that will continue to depend almost entirely on what Asia is doing, not the U.S.” ~ Alan Reynolds

Financial Markets, Fiscal Policy, Government

A New Era of Stagflation?

– November 4, 2021

“The creditors of the United States will not accept negative returns on an ever-expanding mountain of US debt indefinitely. At some point, perhaps not long from now, the US will face sharply higher interest rates and the type of budgetary constraints that were typical of profligate Third World borrowers.” ~ David P. Goldman

Fiscal Policy, Government, Taxation

A U.S. Wealth Tax Would Force Wealth Out of the U.S.

– November 1, 2021

“Since no other developed country taxes wealth in the aggressive way that the Democrats are proposing, passage of their proposed tax would result in a massive flight of human and financial capital out of the United States.” ~ John Tamny

Fiscal Policy, Government, Taxation

FNB’s Shameful Public Purse Raid

– October 28, 2021

“That big bankers and their government toadies continue to play the public for suckers is abhorrent. That’s especially true as, on one hand, they tout all the ‘public benefits’ of their projects as their other hand turns out taxpayer pockets.” ~ Colin McNickle

Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Government, War and Peace

Military Spending Is Not the Same As Defense Spending

– October 21, 2021

“Washington’s policy making elite should impose truth in advertising on the Defense Department by returning its name to the Department of War. Today, unfortunately, Washington makes war far more often than it defends the American people.” ~ Doug Bandow

Economic Education, Fiscal Policy, Government, Monetary Policy

In Defense of Bank Deposits: An Open Letter to Professor Omarova

– October 16, 2021

“I can’t help thinking that someone placed in charge of a quarter of the nation’s banks ought to recognize the valuable services they perform, and recognize them well enough to be willing to oppose any plan that would prevent them from continuing to perform those services.” ~ George Selgin

Crisis, Economic Education, Fiscal Policy, Government

Capital Accumulation and the Reconciliation Package

– October 13, 2021

“Misguided tax hikes on businesses and individuals that discourage saving and diminish funds for private investment must be avoided. Neglecting this legislation’s adverse impact on capital accumulation means robbing future prosperity for the sake of the present social ends.” ~ Theodore A. Gebhard

Central Banking, Fiscal Policy, Inflation, Monetary Policy

Is Larry Summers Channeling Benjamin Anderson?

– October 13, 2021

“The post-2008 framework has incentivized the destabilization of monetary policy. The sooner we recognize this fact, the sooner we can seriously discuss a solution to the problem.” ~ James L. Caton

Central Banking, Economic Education, Fiscal Policy, International

The IMF Should Be Eliminated, Not Expanded

– October 12, 2021

“There are many good economists who work for the IMF and they often produce high-quality research. Sadly, their sensible analysis doesn’t seem to have any impact on the decisions of the organization’s top bureaucrats.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell