taxes

Hundreds of years separate Jean Jacques Rousseau and Dave Ramsey, but they share a common approach to finances. In the Social Contract, Rousseau writes that the “most important maxim…

I just came across this summary/comparison of the House and Senate’s tax reform proposals published by Forbes. It is really quite good at laying out the details in a…

You may have missed the news that North Carolina government had higher revenue and lower spending than budgeted for the third year in a row. When government takes in…

Americans spent 2.6 percent more on goods and services after adjusting for inflation in the three months through June than in the same period a year ago, but…

It’s a tale of two state budget pictures. A new report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University compares North Carolina’s fiscal solvency to those of other states. Meanwhile,…

Since nonpartisan staff at the General Assembly presented a five-year projection of spending and taxes, editorials and comments from state legislators make it clear that long-term estimates of spending and…

In his 1985 address to the North Carolina Foundation for Research and Economic Education (NC FREE), Gov. James Martin laid out three keys to a more conservative view of government.

What do subsidies for “green” energy, mandated health insurance benefits, and quotas on imported sugar all have in common? Most obviously, all three policies generate a wealth transfer from the…

It is easy to become complacent, to think that things now are as they always have been and always will be. But as Heraclitus and Disney’s Pocahontas both remind us,…

How consensus-based budgeting works Most people are familiar with the concept of logrolling: accepting someone else’s proposal to get their acceptance of yours. In government, it often means more programs…