By Daniel J. Mitchell
With both France and Greece deciding to jump out of the left-wing frying pan into the even-more-left-wing fire, European fiscal policy has become quite a controversial topic. But I find this debate and discussion rather tedious and unrewarding, largely because it pits advocates of Keynesian spending (the so-called “growth” camp) against supporters of higher taxes [...]
Paul Krugman and the European Austerity Myth is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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Last weekend, the people of France took a sharp turn to the left, and the rest of Europe may be on the brink of rebuking its recent tack toward fiscal responsibility. With Sunday’s election of French Socialist leader Francois Hollande, France has leapt backward toward the policies that have helped sink the continent in a sovereign debt crisis. Disturbingly, the big government platform Hollande campaigned on is all too familiar to the American people, and if the United States is not careful, it could suffer the same fate as its … More
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French President-elect François Hollande campaigned on bringing all French troops home from Afghanistan by the end of the year. Therefore, if this election promise is kept, NATO will have a gap of 3,300 troops to fill in an important area of Afghanistan during an important stage of the campaign. Currently, the French have around 3,300 troops in Afghanistan located in the relatively peaceful but geographically important Kapisa Province between Kabul and the Pakistani border. After a rogue Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers and wounded another 16 in January, Afghanistan … More
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Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat at the hands of French Socialist leader Francois Hollande has sent shock waves throughout Europe, and will significantly challenge the fragile austerity consensus across the EU. Jean-Marc Ayrault, the likely next prime minister of France, puts it in uncompromising terms: We must get out of this austerity in Europe and tonight all our partners in governments around Europe have understood that was the choice of François Hollande to re-orient Europe. Hollande’s victory spells trouble ahead for both Angela Merkel and David Cameron, who face general elections in … More
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Voters in five European countries—France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Serbia—go to the polls on May 6. Election outcomes, particularly in France and Greece, are likely to ratchet up uncertainty about the future of the European Union. In a somber, warning tone, a group of concerned French economists penned a public appeal for an informed decision on the country’s critical Sunday election. Making a strong case that France “should know better than to elect François Hollande,” they remind voters: Socialism has never succeeded in its extreme form, communism. As the past … More
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This October marks the 10-year anniversary of the Beltway sniper attacks, a series of killings that gripped the Washington, D.C., metro area with fear. Until being brought to justice, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo methodically gunned down nearly a dozen innocent civilians. This past week, citizens in the area of Toulouse, France, had to endure a similarly terrifying experience. Twenty-three-year-old Mohammad Merah, a self-proclaimed operative of al-Qaeda, is suspected of having murdered seven individuals in a series of deliberate shootings that took the lives of three French paratroopers, … More
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A wannabe al-Qaeda went on a killing spree in France. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief because it happened over there. It can happen here. At least 45 plots aimed at the U.S. since 9/11 have been thwarted. Good work—but cold comfort. We have not stopped all of them. When Major Nidal Hasan allegedly shot dead his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, it was after having told an al-Qaeda recruiter, “I can’t wait to join you [in the afterlife].” Alone or in small numbers, a few can slaughter many innocents—and … More
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By Marian L. Tupy
Francois Hollande is a man on a mission—to increase the top rate of tax on income to 75 percent. The Socialist candidate, who is poised to beat Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election, said, “Above 1m euros [£847,000; $1.3m], the tax rate should be 75% because it’s not possible to have that level of [...]
France Will Show U.S. How (Not) to Do It is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Daniel J. Mitchell
One year ago, I wrote about how the French government was getting unexpected additional revenues following the implementation of lower tax rates.
This is the Laffer Curve in action, and it’s …
The Laffer Curve Works, Even in France is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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