A new Tax Foundation study ranks states on the basis of the ratio of tax dollars sent out to Washington in federal tax payments to tax dollars returned via federal spending. The top five winner states — New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, Mississippi, and West Virginia — receive more than they send out. The top five loser states — New Jersey,
According to a research paper put out by the Reason Foundation ( summarized here in .pdf ), the U.S. federal government is getting old. The average federal employee is 46 years old. By 2004, nearly one-third of all federal employees will be ready for retirement. Another 21 percent will be eligible for early retirement in that year. Concludes
Bill Anderson’s recent Mises.org piece on Krugman rings truer each day. In today’s New York Times Magazine , Krugman attempts to push supply-side theory out of the economics profession, as he attempted several years ago to do to the Austrians. It is clear that Krugman believes the only professional economists are Monetarists and Keynesians of
The recent wave of sports stadium and arena construction is costing the U.S. Treasury more than $100 million annually because the projects have been financed with tax-exempt bonds. At least 38 major league sports venues have been built or rebuilt using nearly $7 billion in tax-exempt financing since 1990, according to a Washington Post review
A GAO report warns that overzealous enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act promotes consolidation of the accounting industry, implying less competition, fewer firms to choose from, higher fees (and possibly some future casework for Justice Department antitrust lawyers). Reports Forbes.com : ” A series of mergers and the collapse of Andersen last
“The guy is so upfront and earnest,” says Jim Griffin of ING Aeltus, quoted intoday’s Wall Street Journal ($) , “it kind of makes you wonder about his motives.”
George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen, in a critique of the gold standard and free banking on another economics blog , clarifies where he draws the line at free market solutions and thinks statism is to be preferred. The economic performance resulting form a gold standard, he says, would have improved the economy in the 1970s (if it were
After it was announced that the FY2003 budget deficit would inch even closer to the one-half trillion mark ($455 billion), the OMB announced that the average budget deficit for the next five years will be $380 billion--and this is based on the most optimistic assumptions. The White House defends its small tax cuts as being part of the solution
There is little doubt that even the Weekly Standard can run sensible pieces from time to time, but one wonders whether such pieces are dictated more by the magazine’s funding sources than in response to a genuine appreciation for market order. If it were more consistent, the Weekly Standard would at least equally criticize regulations drawn up by
The secessionist movement in California has made created an environment that is looking more and more like the chaos depicted in the 1982 science fiction movie “The Blade Runner”, or so writes Brent Staples in today’s New York Times (zero-priced registration required). Writes Staples: “The pollution [in Los Angeles] is horrendous. The rich have
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.