What happened to the US labor market after the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act expired after the Great Recession?By Tyler Smith of The AEA. “In December 2013, when Congress failed to reauthorize the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act, many prominent economists predicted a substantial decline in employment and labor force participation. In a paper in the American Economic Journal:…
The effects of unemployment benefit duration
The Sensible Swiss Strike Again, Overwhelmingly Rejecting Class Warfare
03 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Switzerland, taxation and investment
Congratulations to Switzerland, the “improbable success” that is home to the world’s most sensible voters. The left put a referendum on the ballot to impose a national death tax and the people of Switzerland overwhelmingly voted against the class warfare initiative. Every single canton in every single region voted no. More than 90 percent of […]
The Sensible Swiss Strike Again, Overwhelmingly Rejecting Class Warfare
Japan’s Growing Burden of Government Means an Inevitable Fiscal Crisis
03 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, economic growth, economic history, financial economics, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, population economics, public economics Tags: ageing society, Japan, population bust
I often get asked when the United States will suffer a Greek-style fiscal crisis. My answer is always “I don’t know,” though I freely admit we are heading in that direction. My lack of specificity isn’t merely because economists are lousy forecasters. I tell people it’s all about investor sentiment, and it’s hard to know […]
Japan’s Growing Burden of Government Means an Inevitable Fiscal Crisis
Treasury on tax
27 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
I’ve never really been persuaded that it is a good idea for public servants to be giving speeches, unless perhaps they are simply and explicitly explaining or articulating government policy. If they are, instead, purporting to run their own views or those of their agency it is almost inevitable that we will be getting less […]
Treasury on tax
The Milei Miracle, Part III
25 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, unemployment Tags: Argentina
I’m still riding high after Javier Milei’s political party won a landslide in last month’s mid-term elections in Argentina. And I’m very much hoping and expecting that gives him enough legislative support to enact big reforms next year to further liberate the Argentinian economy (tax reform, free trade, and labor market liberalization). But let’s take […]
The Milei Miracle, Part III
Was Brexit a Mistake?
24 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics, macroeconomics Tags: Brexit
I supported Brexit for two reasons. The European Union is a sinking ship and a vote for Brexit spares British taxpayers from being on the hook when massive bailouts occur. Leaving the European Union would give the United Kingdom more leeway to choose a pro-market, Singapore-on-Thames policy agenda. The good news is that Point #1 […]
Was Brexit a Mistake?
The Adverse Consequences of High-Tax Welfare States
22 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, fiscal policy, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, welfare reform
Honest leftists (the “Okunites“) generally acknowledge that laissez-faire policies deliver more growth, but they nonetheless favor high taxes and redistribution because they argue that social equality matters a lot. However, according to this chart, there’s a negative relationship between bigger government and social welfare indicators such as health, education, unemployment, and exclusion. Looking specifically at […]
The Adverse Consequences of High-Tax Welfare States
Nobel Prize Winners’ Work Supports Dynamic Antitrust Enforcement
21 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, macroeconomics, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
Antitrust should center on dynamic market forces that drive major technological change, rather than on static “big is bad” market analysis, based on the work of the 2025 economics Nobel Prize winners. Antitrust enforcers in the United States and around the world could benefit by incorporating these insights into their policy development. Focus on Dynamic […]
Nobel Prize Winners’ Work Supports Dynamic Antitrust Enforcement
Why No One Likes Land Taxes
21 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
Economists and [insert basically every other group of people] often don’t agree. Take, for instance, the recent discussion of price controls. The headline of this opinion piece on the subject in The New York Times literally begins with “Economists Hate This Idea.” Yet voters aren’t so skeptical. (I’m not ready to say the idea has…
Why No One Likes Land Taxes
Europe at a crossroad
14 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, macroeconomics Tags: European Union
The Constitution of Innovation The continent faces two options. By the middle of this century, it could follow the path of Argentina: its enormous prosperity a distant memory; its welfare states bankrupt and its pensions unpayable; its politics stuck between extremes that mortgage the future to save themselves in the present; and its brightest gone…
Europe at a crossroad
The Value-Added Tax: A Recipe for More Spending…and More Debt: Part II
12 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics
The case against the value-added tax (VAT) is not complicated. Simply stated, this hidden type of national sales tax was a key precursor for the expansion of the European welfare state. As you can see in the chart, the burden of government spending in Europe after World War II was similar to the size of […]
The Value-Added Tax: A Recipe for More Spending…and More Debt: Part II
Capital gains tax: how Hipkins has abandoned policy soundness for a symbolic gesture
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, income redistribution, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
Peter Dunne writes – In 1994 the then Labour Opposition resolved to introduce a new top tax rate of 39 cents in the dollar. The reason for the policy was purely political, not fiscal. Labour was shedding votes to Jim Anderton’s left-wing Alliance at the time and wanted to do something symbolic to staunch the flow. […]
Capital gains tax: how Hipkins has abandoned policy soundness for a symbolic gesture
Implications of the (Second) Libertarian Landslide in Argentina
29 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, development economics, economic growth, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics Tags: Argentina
In yesterday’s column, I celebrated the huge victory for Javier Milei and his libertarian LLA party in Argentina’s mid-term elections. Today, let’s contemplate the consequences. Starting with this video. The above video is from an interview yesterday with the great Ross Kaminsky of KOA in Denver. He wanted to know the big-picture meaning of Sunday’s […]
Implications of the (Second) Libertarian Landslide in Argentina
The Out-Sized Importance of Today’s Mid-Term Elections in Argentina
27 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, development economics, economic growth, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, macroeconomics, monetary economics Tags: Argentina
I explained two months ago that Argentina’s mid-term elections are critically important, and here’s some of what I said in an interview with Austin Peterson. I’ll be paying close attention to the results later today for three reasons. The mid-term elections will determine whether Milei has legislative support for the additional reforms that are desperately […]
The Out-Sized Importance of Today’s Mid-Term Elections in Argentina
Fall good, faster better
24 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
Robert MacCulloch isn’t partisan in his political views. He is scathing about Labour and its potential partners and often goes very hard on National and the coalition government. But he’s found some good news: . . The Opposition’s Coalition of Chaos hasn’t come up with one sensible idea since losing power. Now the only brain […]
Fall good, faster better
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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