Do fiscal decisions of incumbent mayors affect their probability of being re-elected? Do they consider the fiscal decisions of the neighboring mayors when they face an election? And do these…
A must-read piece by Alan Meltzer in The Wall Street Journal explains why the economic response to increased government spending is so different from the response predicted by Keynesian models.…
Germany has raised over a quarter of its total EFSF obligation of €211 billion by way of what is essentially magic. The Telegraph reports that “Germany is €55bn richer than…
The sovereign debt crisis forces our governments to stretch their imagination in order to find additional budget revenues. In Europe, as well as in the US, many voices call for additional contributions from the rich (not such a big stretch of imagination, in fact, if it was for the already high contribution asked from them). Interestingly, some eminent wealthy people like Warren Buffet in the US or Liliane Bettencourt (L’Oréal) in France welcome the idea, denouncing a system that deprives them from the possibility of making an equitable tax contribution (read more about this here).
William A. Niskanen, chairman emeritus and a distinguished senior economist at the Cato Institute, has died at the age of 78. Niskanen was the chairman of the Cato Institute for…
The Coalition for Tax Competition asked members of the US Congress to cut the $100 million taxpayer subsidy to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Citing the OECD’s record as an opponent of tax competition, the letter released by the coaltion argues that US taxpayers should not be funding an organization which works against their interests by promoting a statist agenda.
For the French government, it is more than ever urgent to convince everyone that the State deficit is moving in the right direction and the public debt is sustainable. In the context of an uncertain future for the French credit rating triple A note, the present debate on the budget of the State for the coming year and the austerity measures it includes became a really hot issue. The initial project of budget for 2012 has been already adopted by the Financial Commission at the French National Assembly and is now being discussed by the deputies.
Online Articles
In next year’s presidential elections, voters will choose between statism of the left and statism of the right.
This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal
In next year’s French presidential elections, it seems increasingly likely that voters will be asked to choose between two types of statism: statism of the left and statism of the right. Over the weekend François Hollande won the final round of the Socialist Party primaries, handily besting party leader Martine Aubry, and is now set to face off against France’s ostensibly center-right president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
An excellent report published by the Finnish think-tank Libera Foundation offers a novel historical perspective on the development of the Swedish economy.Contrary to the commonly- held view, this report is explaining the success of the Swedish model is not due to the Welfare State. Rather, it is a Johny-come-lately: expansion of public welfare started only around 1970. By 1985, taxes exceeded 50% of GDP and by the mid 1990’s Sweden had dropped from one of the top positions to a mid-level rank in terms of wealth and economic growth.
Slovakia’s parliament became the first in the eurozone to vote against bailing out indebted economies. The final vote on approving new powers for the €440bn European financial stability facility failed with only 55 of the parliament’s 150 MPs voting in favour, causing the coalition government of Iveta Radicova to collapse. Slovakia is the last of the 17 eurozone countries to approve the “improved” rescue fund. The Slovak parliament will remain in session and is likely to hold a second vote. Nevertheless, Slovakia has really good reasons not to approve the EFSF.
