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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
Florida ranks #2 in the nation according to Freedom in the 50 States and ranks #3 in the nation according to Economic Freedom of North America. Those are impressive scores, but Florida does even better when looking specifically at school choice. It ranks #1 in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2025 Index of State Education Freedom. What makes Florida’s score even more impressive is that it gets good educational outcomes while being frugal with taxpayer money.
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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
Last year, I mocked Tucker Carlson for trying to make it seem like Russia’s moribund economy was successful. Two years ago, I showed that Russia lagged behind other nations that emerged from the collapse of communism. Three years ago, I shared a chart showing that Russia was an economic failure because of dirigiste economic policy. Just in case it’s not obvious, I think Russia needs liberalization. More free markets and less statism. With that in mind, let’s look at some not-too-distant history.
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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
Assessing Javier Milei, the World’s Best Leader: Part VIII January 29, 2025 by Dan Mitchell I wrote a few weeks ago about how 108 leftist economists, including Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, were wildly wrong when they warned in 2023 that Javier Milei’s agenda would be “very harmful for the Argentine economy.”This new video from John Stossel is further evidence of their ideological blindness.
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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
The bad news is that I had only one column mocking gun control in 2024. The good news is that this is in part because the pro-gun control crowd has been defeated and the issue isn’t generating as much attention as it used to. To be sure, there’s no such thing as a permanent victory in politics, but we should celebrate the current state of play. The courts have upheld the 2nd Amendment and pro-gun control politicians don’t control either Congress or the White House.
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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
Since it was unveiled last September, I’ve cited three examples of my 20th Theorem of Government. ColombiaFranceBrazilYou’ll notice, however, that the Theorem is not limited to countries. That’s because local and regional politicians are just as capable of profligacy as national politicians. Today’s column is going to look at what’s happening in Maryland, where the state’s governor wants a big class-warfare tax increase.
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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
I’m a big fan of Ireland’s low corporate tax rate for three reasons. First, it shows that good tax policy generates positive economic outcomes as per-capita GDP in Ireland has grown by record amounts. Second, it shows that lower tax rates can in some cases lead to more revenue. Sort of a turbo-charged version of the Laffer Curve. Third, it shows that tax competition is beneficial. The low tax rate has pressured other nations to lower their tax rates to keep pace.
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2 months ago | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
In Trump’s fourth year in the White House, back in early 2020, I wrote that the trade deficit was rising because the economy was doing well. I specifically observed in that column that “the trade deficit is increasing in large part because Trump’s pro-growth tax reforms and regulatory reforms are making America more attractive for foreign investors.”This gives me an excuse to share this new Venn Diagram from Mark Perry. By the way, Mark is not speculating. He’s not guessing. Nor is he assuming.
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Jan 24, 2025 | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
Back in 2019, I compared OECD nations based on the total burden of social welfare spending as a share of economic output. France was the worst of the worst, unsurprisingly, followed by Finland and Belgium. That column also differentiated by types of spending. Greece had the biggest burden of pension spending. France had the biggest burden of heath spending. Belgium had the biggest burden of redistribution spending. Today, let’s look at an even narrower slice of the social welfare state.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
I have a special page for humor involving Europe, but I have not added to it since sharing some Brexit humor in 2016. Let’s being the process of catching with some amusing cartoons and memes mocking our government-loving cousins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve made the serious point that bureaucrats in Brussels, when dealing with any issue, have a knee-jerk response of “more centralization.” This cartoon is a humorous version of that.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
danieljmitchell.wordpress.com | Dan Mitchell
Cronyism Is Bad, Regardless of Which Party Is in Charge January 22, 2025 by Dan Mitchell Regular readers know I have a skeptical attitude about Donald Trump. His first term was a mix of good and bad policies and I expect a similar jumble of good and bad policies in his second term. Consider, for instance, the commonly held view that Trump has a pro-business mentality. In many ways, that’s good.
