All Posts Tagged With: "transparency"

Quantitative Uneasiness

In their recent paper, “Has the Fed Been a Failure?,” George A. Selgin, William D. Lastrapes, and Lawrence H. White conclude that over nearly 100 years the Federal Reserve’s performance has been mostly awful. Unfortunately, the Fed is currently engaged in a policy that will likely make a nice addition to their article. This policy, [...]

21Apr2011 | Ivan Pongracic Jr. | 36 comments | Continued

Opaque by Design

“The House and Senate plan to put together the final health care reform bill behind closed doors, according to an agreement by top Democrats.” That less-than-startling piece of news was delivered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi back in January. She was at the White House when she said it, so it looks like it’s okay [...]

24Mar2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | Continued

TGIF: Opaque By Design

The phrase “transparent government” is just this side of a logical contradiction. A really transparent government would barely qualify as a government at all. Imagine if you could witness all the backroom dealing, logrolling, outright bribery, and the rest of the shenanigans that go on under the laughable rubric “governing.” It wouldn’t last a week. [...]

8Jan2010 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Opaque By Design

The phrase “transparent government” is just this side of a logical contradiction. A really transparent government would barely qualify as a government at all.

8Jan2010 | Sheldon Richman | 6 comments | Continued

Government Must Keep Track of Derivatives?

Regardless of what caused the crisis, government efforts to regulate derivatives will only lock in undesirable aspects of the current market and ensure that politically connected players reap artificial gains. It is absurd to ask politicians to promote financial integrity and sound accounting. They are the worst violators of these principles on the planet.

17Jun2009 | Robert P. Murphy | 8 comments | Continued

In Praise of Tax Havens

According to stereotypes, tax havens are little islands in the Caribbean, and indeed that’s true of some of the world’s premiere offshore centers. But to be more accurate, a tax haven is any jurisdiction that satisfies two criteria: First, its tax laws are attractive to global investors and entrepreneurs, and second, it protects its fiscal sovereignty by choosing not to enforce the bad tax laws of other nations, at least when they are trying to tax economic activity outside their borders. This means, of course, that individuals and businesses from high-tax nations have the option of using those jurisdictions as havens against excessive taxation.

10Jun2009 | Daniel Mitchell | 5 comments | Continued

Two Cheers for Transparency

If citizens knew more about how their governments really worked and what they spent other people’s money on, it would not only make for better-informed citizens but for better (and hopefully less) government at the same time. That’s the theory behind a growing movement spearheaded by think tanks from coast to coast and in Canada. [...]

21May2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 6 comments | Continued

Harmful Tax Practices?

David Laband teaches economics at the Forest Policy Center, School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based group of 29 governments (including the U.S. government) is demonizing tax havens around the world. Consider this statement from a recent OECD report: “Harmful tax practices may exist [...]

1Oct2000 | David N. Laband | 3 comments | Continued

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