By Eben McDonald, Contrepoints As Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ireland show, it is not necessarily social spending and redistribution that raises the level of the poorest. The Social Democrats often praise the Nordic countries as examples of the success of progressive taxes, generous welfare states and powerful unions. Free trade advocates […]
Tag: taxes
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Gunning for the 2nd Amendment
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor Our Vice President deals with immigration by flying over the border…but she still hasn’t visited Europe. The Senate is at a standstill, gas prices are rising and inflation is starting to show its ugly head. Welcome to summer 2021. But have hope…free market thinkers and doers […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Incompetence Alert
By Andy Blom, TES Correspondent Who would have guessed the Biden Administration would be more fraught with drama than the Trump Admin? But the border is in chaos, the pandemic in indecision, inflation running amok (try to buy lumber), lines at the gas pump as prices rise and Congress caught in overreach roadblock. […]
Afghanistan, the F-35, and the Pentagon: An Opportunity for Conservatives to Rein in the Waste
By Robert Kuykendall With America’s longest war apparently – and finally – coming to an end, the Biden administrations faces critical decisions when it comes to the transition out of Afghanistan. Of particular importance, the lives and welfare of thousands of Afghan translators and their families depend on being granted safe passage to […]
How ‘functional finance’ becomes heavier taxation
by Enrico Colombatto, Austrian Economics Center Even before Western governments decided to fight Covid-19 by freezing their economies and inflating their debts, many countries had problematic public finance situations. Now, public debt is soaring almost everywhere and dealing with it has become a major issue. The solution so far has been to resort […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: An IRS on Steroids
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor Okay everybody, take five. Relax. We have become a nation obsessed with a rush to judgment, an immediate overreaction to almost everything. A policeman stops a teenage girl from knifing another teenage girl and a basketball star — a basketball star! — instantly tweets to attack him. Georgia […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: NYS Celebrates Bailout By Raising Taxes
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor The U.S. is finally leaving Afghanistan — just a decade or two late and with no prospect of lasting peace or stability for that turbulent region. Yet somehow this momentous news pales in comparison to the ongoing drama of COVID-19, now dominated by the discovery of “rare” blood […]
Anno Mundell: An Elegy for the Father of the Golden Age
By Ralph Benko, TES Contributor Nobel Economics Prize holder Robert Mundell has left the building. Why should we care? He wasn’t a celebrity like Elvis or Kim Kardashian or Donald Trump. Rather, Mundell quietly and emphatically improved the lives of billions of people. Including you and me. Mundell was the founder of […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Stimulus conditions kneecap state tax cuts
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor We desperately need Spring in Washington. You know, a moderate season. We currently are faced with the political versions of extreme climate — and we, the poor American people, are caught in the middle. How about some moderate temperatures, some flowers, gentle rain, baseball even? Just as Spring […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: No, We Don’t Need An EVEN Bigger IRS
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor Okay Policy Fans, America has now officially entered a period of “Middle Child Syndrome” policy. Middle Child Syndrome is when a family’s middle child feels (and often is) ignored, slighted, unnoticed, even abandoned. And that is just how Middle America, and moderates of both parties, must feel in […]