State Budget

Do Government Programs Grow the Economy?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • March 29, 2012

While decades of increased government spending have resulted in economic stagnation, many advocates of increasing government spending claim that their favored program will “grow the economy.” They argue that…

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Education

Pay Kindergarten Teachers Like Baseball Players?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • August 2, 2010

The New York Times reports on some research – HT to Greg Mankiw – on the value of kindergarten improvement, and teachers, on earnings later in life. However,…

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Health Care

Medicare’s Administrative Costs vs. Private Insurance

  • Nathan Benefield
  • August 27, 2009

One of the myths is that Medicare has lower administrative costs than private insurance, and thus is the model for efficient health coverage. (This was an argument made by a…

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Health Care

ObamaCare will Raise Costs and Taxes

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 19, 2009

The Director of the Congressional Budget Office warned that the “public option” and other items in Congressional Democrats’ health care proposals would cause health care costs to increase, not…

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Taxes & Economy

Who Watches the Watchmen?

  • May 19, 2009

From Plato’s Republic to…well…The Watchmen (2009), the question of “Who watches the watchmen?” has remained unanswered. This problem continues with the government’s stimulus plan with its…

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Taxes & Economy

More on the AIG Bonuses

  • Nathan Benefield
  • March 19, 2009

Greg Mankiw notes that the AIG bonuses, which seem to be such a focus of Congressional leaders these days, amount to 0.001% of GDP – a pretty trivial amount…

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State Budget

What do Economists Agree On?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 18, 2009

Greg Mankiw posts a selection from his textbook on what economists agree on, from a survey.  I am not suprised to see economists overwhelmingly support free trade, as that…

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Taxes & Economy

Libertarian ideas to stimulate economy

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 7, 2009

Jeffrey A. Miron has a list of libertarian proposals to stimulate the economy (I would expect most self-described “conservatives” would agree with 8 of the 9 proposals): Repeal the…

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Taxes & Economy

Cutting Taxes Better Stimulus than Government Spending

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 11, 2008

With all the push for more government spending (at both the state and federal level) to “stimulate the economy”, readers should take a look at new research highlighted…

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