Taxes and Spending

The Trump administration announced that the IRS will end its free Direct File (DF) program that taxpayers have used on the IRS website to file their own tax returns.

When politicians claim they are “creating jobs,” they usually mean hiring people for tax-funded government employment. Jobs in private enterprise, however, help to create real wealth and contribute to economic growth and higher living standards.

President Trump‘s threat to withhold $9 billion from Harvard University is being framed in the legacy media and academia as a threat to Harvard‘s academic freedom. But there is a pertinent question no pundits are even asking: Why are taxpayers being forced to give Harvard $9 billion?

Politicians and central bankers assure us that they are diligently “fighting” inflation. Actually, they are fighting inflation the same way that an arsonist fights against the fires he just set. Government is the inflation arsonist.

Economist Robert Higgs described the “ratchet effect” in which government either creates a crisis or responds to one, leading to a permanent expansion of government power. After the crisis ends, government retreats—but not to the point where is was pre-crisis.

Our taxes are due today. It‘s a reminder that we must get past the tax reformers’ favorite ploy of revenue neutrality.

Recent moves make clear the tax agency plans to grow, not fade away.

President Trump has declared today “Liberation Day,” because many of his tariffs come into force. His team is taking a gamble that either the law of supply and demand does not apply to trade or that the American public will be uncharacteristically fine with higher prices.

International trade is the topic du jour. Mark Thornton shares his recent presentation on a timely and important book featuring many of your favorite authors.

Is “austerity” in the future for the US Government? Awash in debt and facing economic crises, the government may have to go on a diet, something neither Congress nor the president want to do.