An idea that has been around for hundreds of years, the universal basic income has only recently become an experiment in Stockton, California.…
What Would John Maynard Keynes Have Said About Stimulus Spending?
To the Great Depression and the Great Recession, we can now add coronavirus stimulus spending as examples of John Maynard Keynes’s philosophy.…
Should We Be More Like Scandinavia?
Looking at Scandinavian taxes, we can see the tradeoffs that government provided healthcare, university tuition, parental leave, and elder care require.…
The Problem With Plastic Bag Bans
Because Chicago first had a single use plastic bag ban and then replaced it with a single use plastic bag fee, researchers can compare the impact.…
When It’s Tough to Calculate the Cost of An Internet Tax
After the Supreme Court said any state could charge internet taxes, the decision rippled across small, large, local, and remote businesses.…
What It’s Handy To Know About a Wealth Tax
Considering the complexities of the past and present wealth tax in OECD countries, we can better decide if it should be used to diminish wealth inequality.…
How Laissez-Faire Countries Tax and Spend
What we tax and how we spend send a message. So today, let’s look at what countries with more economic freedom tell us through their fiscal policy. Laissez-Faire Countries I’ve selected la…
Why Grandma is Smiling
A Social Security shortfall will create tradeoffs between the generations that get more than they paid to the system and others that get much less.…
Where the Federal Deficit Can Fool Us
At $1 trillion, the ballooning U.S. deficit can be understood as a number, as a proportion of the budget, and the reason we owe China so much money.…
How to Calculate the Cost of a Disaster
To determine the disaster cost of weather and climate events, the U.S. government has to decide what to include and how to assess the value.…