The moral of this economic story is that whenever someone who has an incentive to lowball the burden of a tax is speaking or writing, be careful to look at what happens to take-home income as a better guide to policy.
So long as governments exist, it is essential that we minimize the ability of groups and individuals to use the power of the state to enrich themselves.
The American Left used to argue that we needed higher taxes on the rich so they would "pay their fair share." Nowadays, they are arguing that billionaires shouldn't exist at all.
Bob Murphy interviews researcher and Columbia economics professor Wojciech Kopczuk.
The Clark County School District evaluated itself, and it determined that all the teachers and administrators are doing a great job — and by the way, the union deserves more money.
Despite its supposedly strained relationship with the Saudi regime, the Obama administration, for example, still managed to offer the royals of that kingdom a record $136 billion in US weapons between 2009 and 2017.
Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth taxes will have devastating consequences on capital formation, and will encourage investors to hold riskier assets than they otherwise would have.
Anti-market activists in Argentina try to blame the country's economic woes on markets, but the populist movement of Peronism is what has doomed the country to endless cycles of economic and monetary crises.
The government may claim that it needs the funds to provide essential social services: are the poor to be left to starve? But these assertions do not justify its policy of forcible seizure.
