Haiti and the Failure of Foreign Aid

Foreign aid is an expensive failure. American taxpayers have coughed up hundreds of billions of dollars in recent decades for various government-to-government handouts, and the total is far higher when you include the aid payments of other nations and the activities of international bureaucracies. Yet rather than helping, these handouts most likely have reduced prosperity […]

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Big Government vs. “Trickle-Down Economics”

If nothing else, Biden’s big-government agenda is triggering a debate about fundamental issues, such as whether it’s a good idea to make America’s economy more like Singapore or more like Italy. In making the case for the Italian approach of higher taxes and bigger government during his speech to Congress, President Biden exclaimed that “trickle-down […]

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Does the European Union Promote Economic Freedom?

Two years ago, I shared a study from three scholars that investigated whether membership in the European Union (EU) is associated with better economic performance. Before reading that study, I assumed that EU membership was bad news for rich countries with decent economic policy (hence my support for Brexit), but I figured it was a […]

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The IMF’s Poisonous Fiscal Advice for China

I have mixed feelings about China’s economic policies. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, China was horrifically impoverished because of socialist policies. According to the Maddison database, the country was actually poorer under communism than it was 1,000 years ago. But there was then a bit of economic liberalization starting in 1979. As a result, […]

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Assessing Trump’s Record on Regulation

When I did my final assessment of Trump’s economic record, I gave him credit for cutting red tape in some areas, but also noted that he increased government intervention in other areas. …there were some very positive moves on regulation, but they were partly offset by areas where Trump increased intervention (coal subsidies, property rights, […]

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Israel’s Shift to Private Social Security

What’s the best economic news of the past 40 years? Was it Reaganomics, which restored America’s economic vitality? Was it the collapse of the Soviet Empire, which freed many nations from communist tyranny and allowed at least some of them to successfully shift to markets? Was it partial economic liberalization in China, which lifted hundreds […]

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Why Did South Korea Diverge from Brazil?

Traditional economics, specifically convergence theory, tells us that poor nations should grow faster than rich nations. I’m more interested, however, in why convergence often doesn’t happen, or only partially happens. And I’m extremely interested in why we often see divergence, which occurs when two countries are at a similar level of development, but then one […]

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Greece Needs to Expand its Experiment with Supply-Side Economics

There’s a reason that Greece is almost synonymous with bad economic policy. The country has endured some terrible prime ministers, most recently Alexis Tsipras of the far-left Syriza Party. Andreas Papandreou, however, wins the prize for doing the most damage. He dramatically expanded the burden of government spending in the 1980s (the opposite of what […]

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Italy’s Grim Outlook

There are many reasons to be depressed about Italy. Bad policy is part of the problem, of course, but this chart shows that the country also is facing a demographic crisis. The blue lines show that there are now more deaths than births. The chart comes from a Bloomberg column by Flavia Rotondi and Giovanni […]

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Coronavirus and the Future of Public Policy

I spoke last week about the “Economic Consequences of the Crisis” for a webinar organized by the Estonian Business School. My remarks focused on the severity of the downturn, the likelihood of a new fiscal crisis in Europe, and how to balance the costs and benefits of re-opening the economy. The full program, which was […]

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If Finland Is a Role Model for Bernie Sanders, Middle-Income Taxpayers Won’t Be Happy

Assuming he was able to impose his policy agenda, I think Bernie Sanders – at best – would turn America into Greece. In more pessimistic moments, I fear he would turn the U.S. into Venezuela. The Vermont Senator and his supporters say that’s wrong and that the real goal is to make America into a […]

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Ranking Economic Liberty in America States, Canadian Provinces, and Mexican States

My favorite publication from the Canada-based Fraser Institute is Economic Freedom of the World, which ranks nations based on economic liberty. I religiously write about each year’s report (starting back in 2011), and I also cite the data dozens of time each year when analyzing policy in various nations. The second-best report from the Fraser […]

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U.K. Election Week, Part III: Remembering Margaret Thatcher

For two simple reasons, I want Boris Johnson to win a clear majority tomorrow in the elections for the British Parliament. He’s not a lunatic socialist, like Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party and the British version of Bernie Sanders. He’s promised a real Brexit, meaning the U.K. escapes a doomed-to-decline, ever-more-dirigiste European […]

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China: From Mao’s Failure to Partial Economic Reform to…?

Today, October 1, is the 70th anniversary of communists seizing power in China. Given the horrible consequences of Mao’s rule, including tens of millions of deaths from famine and tyranny, this tweet from President Trump seems rather inappropriate. That being said, it’s also worth pointing that today’s China is far better than Mao’s China. Simply […]

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The “Trump of Brazil” Has a Much Better Understanding of Trade than the Trump of America

According to the most-recent edition of Economic Freedom of the World, Brazil is only ranked #120, which is lower than nations such as Greece, Haiti, and China. Brazil gets a horrible grade on regulation, and it’s also in the bottom half of all nations when looking at fiscal policy, quality of governance, and trade. But […]

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The Predictably Perverse Impact of Greek Bailouts

There are many reasons to oppose the various bailouts of the Greek government. Here are my two main reasons. I don’t like rewarding investors who make imprudent decisions, and it really galls me to bail out the (mostly) rich people who bought Greek bonds. I don’t like rewarding politicians who make imprudent decisions, and it […]

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New Rankings for Economic Liberty: Good News and Bad News for the United States

The folks at the Fraser Institute in Canada have just released a new version of Economic Freedom of the World. As has been the case for many years, Hong Kong is #1 and Singapore is #2, followed by New Zealand (#3) and Switzerland (#4). Interestingly, the United States improved one spot, climbing to #5. Here’s […]

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Pope Francis Rejects Prosperity for Developing Nations

I first opined about Pope Francis in 2013, when I told a BBC audience why the Pope was wrong on economic policy. The following year, I expanded on that point, explaining that statist policies are bad for the poor. And I revisited the issue again last year. I’m not the only one making these arguments. […]

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China’s Choice: Statism and Stagnation or Reform and Prosperity

I’ve applauded China’s economic progress. It’s economic liberty score jumped from 3.64 in 1980 to 6.46 in the most recent edition of Economic Freedom of the World. That shift toward markets (which started in a village) helped to dramatically reduce poverty and turn China into a middle-income nation. That’s the good news. The bad news […]

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Can Tories Find a New Margaret Thatcher to Lead the U.K. to Post-Brexit Prosperity?

The Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is in the process of selecting a new leader to replace the disastrous Theresa May as Prime Minister. The most important goal for the Tories is to find someone who will deliver a clean Brexit and thereby extricate the country from a decrepit and declining European Union. But […]

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Venezuela and the Socialism Slide

How do we measure the cost of Venezuelan socialism? Is it people eating household pets? Is it people dying of malnourishment? Is it women selling their bodies? Actually, it’s all of the above. And there’s plenty of additional evidence. All of which shows that more socialism results in more misery. Let’s review some examples. Venezuela […]

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Australia’s Election and Economic Reform

I’m in Sydney, Australia, but not because I’m confirming that this country will be my escape option if (when?) the United States suffers a Greek-style fiscal collapse. Instead, I’m Down Under for the annual Friedman Conference. This gives me an excuse to write about Australia, especially since national elections just took place this past weekend. […]

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Argentina and the Political Consequences of Right-Wing Statism

Just last month, I wrote about Argentina’s grim economic outlook and criticized the supposed right-of-center President, Mauricio Macri, for failing to deliver any meaningful economic liberalization. And reform is desperately needed. According to Economic Freedom of the World, Argentina is one of the most statist nations on the planet (the only nations that do worse […]

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Five Things to Understand about Trump’s Trade War with China

When I want to feel optimistic about China, I look at data from Economic Freedom of the World to confirm that there was a lot of economic liberalization (triggered in part by some civil disobedience) between 1980 and the early 2000s. Then I look at how that period of capitalist reform dramatically improved living standards […]

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Denmark, Socialism, and Free Markets, Part II

I explained yesterday that Denmark is not a good role model for American leftists. Simply stated, Otto Brøns-Petersen’s video shows that the admirable outcomes in that country are the result of laissez-faire markets and the bad outcomes are the result of the welfare state imposed beginning in the 1960s. In any event, Denmark is not […]

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Trump, Xi, Trade, and the Need for a Second Stage of Pro-Market Economic Reform in China

Since trade promotes prosperity, I want increased market-driven, cross-border commerce between China and the United States. But you can see in this CNBC interview that I’m worried about achieving that outcome given protectionism from President Trump and mercantilism from President Xi in China. There’s never much chance to elaborate in short interviews, so here’s some […]

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The Evidence-Based Case for Free Trade

Last November, I shared a one-minute video from Freedom Partners on the economics of trade. Here’s a full-length (but still only four minutes) treatment of the issue from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity. The first part of the video is a quick glimpse at some of the academic evidence for open trade, and I […]

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The Impressive Rise (and Potential Fall) of South Korea

When I give speeches on the importance of public policy, I frequently share data showing that pro-market nations are relatively prosperous when compared to countries with statist policies. One of the most dramatic examples is South Korean prosperity versus North Korean deprivation. It’s not that South Korea is perfect. After all, it only ranks #35 […]

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Supply-Side Economics and the Post-Reagan Years

Steve Moore and Art Laffer are the authors of Trumponomics, a largely favorable book about the President’s economic policy. I have a more jaundiced view about Trump. I’m happy to praise his good policies (taxes and regulation), but I also condemn his bad policies (spending and trade). And as you might expect, some people are completely on the opposite […]

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Can Brazil’s New President Copy the Chilean Miracle?

Brazil appears to be a tragic example of what happens when societal capital erodes (or never gets established in the first place) and too many people in the country see government as a vehicle for redistribution. That environment leads to statist policies. Which presumably helps to explain why Brazil is ranked #144 in Economic Freedom […]

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