Fiscal Theory

Hans Sennholz discusses the many proposals to reform the program and save it from its demographic failings. Demographics, he argues, are a distraction from the core problems.

For local government bureaucrats around the country the Fifth Amendment has been stood on its head, with "public use" meaning any private use that generates more tax booty for city hall and "just compensation" meaning whatever the local government goons can steal the property for, writes Doug French.

How is the big spender ever able to campaign on a platform that he has reduced the cost of government to taxpayers? Robert Murphy shows what's wrong with the claim.

How is the Philippine government going to avert a looming fiscal crisis, which has been mounting for years? Of course, writes Grant Nülle, taxpayers will have to atone for the enormous debts run up by bureaucrats, legislators and managers of GOCCs.

The Deficit Twins, are, at best, fraternal, not identical, writes Sean Corrigan. In the last six years, US defense spending has risen 60% and four-fifths of this increase has taken place just since the present Administration took office.

In a brilliant lecture at the Austrian Scholars Conference, Sean Corrigan chronicles the failings of growth-driven government policies that impoverish in the long run.

The US government is the world's largest debtor with deficits feeding debts that pile on in increasingly larger numbers of numbing proportions, writes Christopher Mayer.

Recorded at the Reassessing the Presidency seminar; March 2004. (40:45)

Recorded at Mises University 2003.

What are the costs of a mission to Mars? The $11 billion direct expenses are only the beginning, write Erich Mattei. The burdens also include taxation and inflation, the crowding out caused by state-sponsored research and development, the  misallocation of physical and labor resources, the draining away of talent from the private sector, pollution, and many other hidden costs.