The debt deal passed today does not go as far in cutting spending as I would like. But it does nonetheless enact substantial cuts without any tax increases, with a significant likelihood of more cuts in the future. If the bipartisan commission created by the new legislation fails to come up with a spending cut […]
Archive | Growth of Government
Political Ignorance and Federal Spending
Although federal spending was a major political issue in the 2010 campaign and for many months before it, this recently released CBS poll [HT: Dan Mitchell] reveals widespread public ignorance about the distribution of spending between various programs. The detailed data reveal that only 23% know that Medicare and Medicaid take up between 20 and […]
Libertarianism and the Reliance Interests of People Who Depend on Government Programs
In a recent post on Illinois’ plan to nearly double its state income tax, Megan McArdle writes: The state of Illinois is allegedly close to a deal to nearly double its income tax, from 3% to 5.25%….. The income tax increases…. are both workable and necessary. Conservatives will holler, but Illinois is not going to […]
Six Types of Libertarian Arguments Against Government Action
Economist Bryan Caplan has an interesting post outlining six types of libertarian arguments against government action – “six stages of libertarian denial,” as he calls it: Libertarians set themselves apart from other political thinkers by habitually denying that government should do things. Denial is therefore at the heart of libertarian thought. Thanks to pop psychology, […]
Excellent Review of Todd Zywicki’s and Max Stearns New Book on Public Choice and the Law
By Ilya Somin on June 16, 2010 2:37 pm in Growth of Government, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Public Choice
University of Florida lawprof D. Daniel Sokol has published a very good (and extremely favorable) review of co-conspirator Todd Zywicki’s important recent book Public Choice Concepts and Applications in Law (coauthored with Maxwell Stearns), in the Michigan Law Review. Danny writes that the book is “likely to be recognized as the leading work on the […]
“Temporary” Tax to Pay for DC Baseball Stadium Becomes a Permanent Cash Cow for City Government
I have often criticized government subsidization of sports stadium construction, including the biggest such boondoggle: the record expenditure of over a billion dollars in government money on the new Yankee Stadium (see here for my most recent post on the subject and links to earlier ones). As I pointed out in my very first post […]
Crisis, the Health Care Bill, and the Growth of Government
The passage of the health care demonstrates the ways in which economic crises create opportunities to expand the power of government, often in ways that have little connection to any effort to alleviate the crisis itself. Back in the fall of 2008, I expressed my fear that the combination of an economic crisis, political ignorance […]
Political Ignorance and the Proliferation of Elected Offices
Prominent political blogger Matthew Yglesias recently wrote an interesting post arguing that the proliferation of elections increases the difficulty of acquiring enough information to vote in an informed manner. He quotes a post by Jonathan Bernstein, which expresses bewilderment at the range of offices he voted on in a recent Texas election: Yesterday was election […]
John Mauldin: “The same market forces that work in Illinois can work in Greece”
A few weeks ago at Minyanville, John Mauldin wrote: The EU is backed into a corner. They have this treaty that says governments will act in certain ways. Greece is flaunting that treaty. Everyone acts as if Greece defaulting on its debt would be the end of the EU. Will the EU force Greece to […]
Obama Perpetuates the Myth of Bush as Free-Marketeer
In the State of the Union, Obama continued to blame Bush and the Republicans for our current economic problems. This is understandable for two reasons. First,the GOP does deserve a good deal of blame, though my list of their misdeeds would probably look different from Obama’s. Second, pretty much any president in Obama’s position would […]
Jim Cramer Analyzes the Proposed New Banking Rules
During the second half-hour of Mad Money on CNBC tonight, Jim Cramer has a revealing criticism of the Obama Administration’s proposed banking rules. He concludes that the collapse was not the result of proprietary trading by banks, but rather mainly because of bad real estate loans. Cramer sees the proposal as targeting those who are […]
FHA Slightly Tightens Loan Requirements
Instead of letting housing prices find the natural market-clearing price, many in the government have been supporting the efforts of those trying to reinflate the housing bubble. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has been backing up to half of the mortgage market in some locales — allowing ridiculously low down payments of 3.5%, plus allowing […]
Change I Would Never Have Believed in – Is Obama’s Window of Opportunity Closing Faster than Expected?
President Obama famously promised the country “change we can believe in.” As a longtime Massachusetts resident, one change I would never have believed in until shortly before it actually happened is a conservative Republican winning a Senate seat in my home state. No Republican has won a Senate race in the Bay State since 1972, […]