Taxes and Spending

Government has been meddling in health care for over 100 years, and the latest health care reform is just the latest effort that will result in more expensive health care.

In spite of past assurances to the contrary, our central planners at the Federal Reserve emerged this week to announce that their zero-interest-rate policy will continue. Is the world coming to realize that the emperors have no clothes?

When we adjust for the cost of living, we find that more economically free states in the US are richer, happier, and endure less poverty than the high-tax highly regulated states. Consequently, many people continue to move from less-free states to more-free states.

Bernie Sanders is not a new Mao or Marx. He’s really just a modern New Dealer, and he’s recycling old New Deal plans and rhetoric. And, just like the original, Sanders’ New Deal will do nothing to end our current economic malaise.

Some states are attempting to take control of federal lands within their own borders. But even if the states succeed at this, fewer federal expenditures on federal lands won’t translate into lower taxes for anybody.

The Japanese government has been working to increase both military spending and the military’s role beyond Japan’s borders. This has little to do with Japan asserting independence from Washington, and is more about a cash-strapped US wanting more money from Japanese taxpayers.

The data shows that many Greek workers work for long hours, and some labor data suggests the Greek economy must be fine. But a closer look shows that hard work isn't enough when many others live off the productivity of the working few.

Connecticut has introduced a new death tax. But for some reason, a blatant cash grab like this is never "greed" when a government uses violence to seize wealth. It's only greed when private sector actors want more money.

Boston joins a growing number of cities where the taxpayers decided they didn't want to deal with the massive costs of hosting the Olympic games. As a bastion of crony capitalism, however, the games are still quite popular among politicians and business "leaders."

For decades, American military strategy has amounted to little more than outspending all adversaries. Vietnam and Korea showed this strategy sometimes fails, although it often works as long as the money keeps flowing. But the financial good times won’t last forever.