The “I-Told-You-So” Blog Post about the Completely Predictable Failure of the Greek Bailout

Way back in February of 2010, I wrote that a Greek bailout would be a failure. Not surprisingly, the parasites at the International Monetary Fund and the political elite from other European nations ignored my advice and gave tens of billions of dollars to Greece’s corrupt politicians. The bailout happened in part because politicians and [...]

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We Need More Politicians Willing to Resist the Tax Harmonization “Thieves’ Cartel”

I’m back in Bermuda, but not for sun and fun. Instead, I’m like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike as part of my ongoing effort to thwart high-tax nations in their attacks against tax competition and tax havens at the “Global Tax Forum” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. [...]

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One Final Osama bin Laden Joke

After sharing lots of jokes (here, here, here, here, and here) about the much-deserved death of Osama bin Laden, I figured I had beaten that horse enough and re-focused on policy-oriented blogging. But I’m a sucker for good political humor. So even though this is a remake of a joke I shared last year, it [...]

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In Perfect Symbol of How Government Treats Taxpayers, Postal Worker Keeps Job after Getting Caught Defecating in Someone’s Yard

What’s the difference between a real job and working for the government? I used the think the answer was that bureaucrats are overpaid, usually for being in positions that shouldn’t even exist. Then I thought the difference was that bureaucrats got lavish benefits, about four times as much as people in the productive sector of [...]

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The Pope, the Environmentalist, and the Loggers

The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the mountains of Wyoming for some sightseeing. He was cruising the wilderness in the popemobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods. A helpless hippie, wearing sandals, shorts, a “Save the Whales” hat, and a “Greenpeace” T-shirt, was screaming [...]

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Is Mitt Romney Trying to Become the Richard Nixon of the 21st Century?

I can’t say I’m surprised, but I’m nonetheless still nauseated to read that Mitt Romney has decided to endorse ethanol subsidies. Here’s a blurb from Fox in DC. “I support the subsidy of ethanol,” Romney told an Iowa voter. “I believe ethanol is an important part of our energy solution for this country.” …Romney’s renewed [...]

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Ireland Is Considering a Lower Corporate Tax Rate, so How Come I’m not Happy?

It’s not often that I am unenthusiastic about the possibility of a nation reducing its corporate tax rate. But when the country is doing the right thing for the wrong reason, I hope that feelings of ambivalence are understandable. In this case, some Irish politicians are talking about using a lower corporate tax rate as [...]

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If You Were on a Jury, Would You Convict this Woman?

Time for another episode of “You Be the Judge.” I periodically come across stories that present very difficult (at least for me) moral quandaries, so I figure why not see how other people react. I’ve cited some tough cases in previous posts, dealing with thorny topics such as brutal tax collection tactics, child molestation, Sharia [...]

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International Bureaucrats: Riding the Gravy Train at Taxpayer Expense

I’ve remarked before about how I get especially upset when well-to-do people figure out ways of ripping off taxpayers. Redistribution from rich to poor is not a good idea, but it is far more offensive when the coercive power of government is used to transfer money from ordinary people to the elite. A good (perhaps [...]

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Obama’s IRS Unveils New 1040 Tax Form

Found this in my inbox. I was thinking about saving it for next April, but then decided I might forget so I better use it now. You can click to enlarge and get a clearer image. This is somewhat clever, though I don’t like line 6c since it indirectly implies that McCain would have been [...]

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The Sleazy Corruption of Obamacare

Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute goes to town on the selective, discriminatory, and politically motivated dispensation of Obamacare waivers. I particularly like how he zings the left by asking why, if Obamacare is so wonderful, so many millions of people trying to escape the President’s new scheme. But the more important message in [...]

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The Ryan and Rubio Medicare Videos: The GOP Begins to Fight Back

Republicans have finally woken up and are beginning to explain why Medicare needs to be reformed. Here’s a very good new video from Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee. He hits on key points regarding market competition versus government monopolies, and warns about the danger of giving control of the health care [...]

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Republicans Won’t Like the First Joke, but It Is Funny…and Probably True

This Jimmy Fallon joke from the other night got me to laugh, though I suspect some of my GOP friends will have a different reaction. Obama was in Ireland. He thought about buying a four-leaf clover for good luck, and then he looked at the field of Republican candidates and decided it wasn’t necessary. Speaking [...]

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The DNC’s Utterly Dishonest “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” Video

Here’s a video just released by those wonderful folks at the Democratic National Committee. It claims that the bad Republicans were wrong about the auto bailout because the companies are still in business and have paid back the money they confiscated from taxpayers. This partisan video may be effective, but it’s wrong in very important [...]

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Europe and Greece: Every Option Is on the Table…Except Doing the Right Thing

Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center has a very good – but somewhat depressing – analysis of the fiscal crisis in Greece. She basically concludes that bailouts will continue because nobody in Europe is willing to do the right thing. This got me thinking about what I expect to happen. Here are the options, [...]

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New Paper Explains Why Low-Tax Jurisdictions Should Resist OECD Attacks Against Tax Competition and Fiscal Sovereignty

One of the biggest threats against global prosperity is the anti-tax competition project of a Paris-based international bureaucracy known as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD, acting at the behest of the European welfare states that dominate its membership, wants the power to tell nations (including the United States!) what is acceptable [...]

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A Very Depressing Picture of Tax Complexity and Political Corruption

Read it and weep. Or maybe I should say look at it and weep. I suppose this is a good time to recycle my flat tax video. I don’t mention this in the video, but Hong Kong’s flat tax system, which has been around for more than 60 years, requires less than 200 pages. Slovakia’s [...]

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The TSA Hokey-Pokey

Here’s a classic video from Reason TV mocking our intimate friends at the TSA. Enjoy…and share.

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Since I Want Smaller Government, Mitch Daniels Won’t Be Missed

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has announced that he won’t be running for President. This is good news, as far as I’m concerned. As I wrote last October, I see no evidence that Gov. Daniels would shrink the burden of government. Indeed, I think he would have moved policy in the wrong direction. The three things [...]

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Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which Nation Has the Most Debt of All?

Last night, I spoke at the closing dinner of the European Resource Bank. My message was simple and straightforward: Entitlement programs are killing the developed world. That’s not exactly a surprise, but what may be shocking is America’s relative position. In my remarks, I shared with the audience some data from a 2010 study by [...]

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Greetings from Ukraine, and Dismal News from Europe

I’m on the Crimean Peninsula for a meeting of the European Resource Bank. It’s my first trip to Ukraine, and the conference is being held at a hotel on the Black Sea, so I can’t complain about the scenery. But the news from the various European think tanks is generally not favorable. Marcin Nowacki of [...]

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The Joys of Government-Run Healthcare: More Spending, Longer Waiting Lines, Fewer Patients Treated

I’m a glass-half-full guy, so I’m always looking for the silver lining to any dark cloud. For example, the unfortunate people of the United Kingdom are saddled with a government-run healthcare system that is deficient in some important categories yet still costs a lot of money. But the good news is that this system at [...]

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I Can’t Believe I’m Siding with Ruth Bader Ginsburg over Clarence Thomas!

Sometimes it is a pain in the neck to be allied with conservatives. Just like liberals, conservatives sometimes are guilty of imposing their preferences on society, regardless of clear and unambiguous language in the Constitution. The most recent example is a case originating in Kentucky. Every Supreme Court Justice, with the exception of Ruth Bader [...]

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Is Portugal an “Adult Baby” Nation?

Yesterday, I took aim at a truly pathetic human being who lives as an “adult baby.” But what got me upset was not his lifestyle, but rather the fact that he was mooching off the taxpayers thanks to the dumb bureaucrats at the Social Security Administration, who granted him “disability’ status, which means he gets [...]

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It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…No, It’s Super-Bureaucrat

I’ve had dozens of posts about overpaid bureaucrats. Indeed, I’ve largely stopped blogging about the topic because it is so depressing to constantly be reminded about how a privileged class of people is manipulating the system to coercively obtain undeserved compensation from their less-fortunate neighbors. But every so often I see a story which cries [...]

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I Don’t Care if You Wear Diapers as a 30-Year Old, but Don’t Ask Me to Subsidize Your Lifestyle

I wrote yesterday about the shocking case of a millionaire collecting food stamps. Today, I have an equally disgusting story of government waste. The Social Security program is actuarially bankrupt, with unfunded liabilities of several trillion dollars. Our topic today deals with the disability portion of Social Security, which is in especially poor shape, with [...]

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Gee, I’m Glad I Pay Taxes to Give Food Stamps to a Millionaire

Not that we needed any additional evidence that the government wastes money in truly spectacular fashion, but this story from the Detroit Free Press is especially disgusting and outrageous. A man who won $2 million on a Michigan lottery show has told a TV station that he still uses food stamps. Leroy Fick of Bay [...]

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Punish the French Rapist, but the Real Target Should Be the IMF

I certainly take second place to nobody in my utter contempt for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund. Who knew that forcing yourself (allegedly) on women could earn you a reputation as “the Great Seducer”? I guess my failure to understand means I’m just a backwards and provincial American. I’m also a [...]

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Greetings from Bermuda – a Multiracial Paradise Disliked by the Left

My fight for freedom often requires great sacrifice. Last month, I went to Monaco and spoke about financial regulation and bailouts. Today, I’m in Bermuda, where I just gave a speech about tax competition. Both jurisdictions are remarkable places, among the richest places on the planet. And remarkably scenic, as illustrated by this picture I [...]

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Who’s Right on Medicare Reform, Ryan and Rivlin or Obama and Gingrich?

This new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity discusses a proposal to solve Medicare’s bankrupt finances by replacing an unsustainable entitlement with a “premium-support” system for private insurance, also known as vouchers. This topic is very hot right now, in part because Medicare reform is included in the bold budget approved by House [...]

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