Excessive regulation, rising food prices, high taxes, and government waste threaten the stability of Israel’s economy. Yair Lapid, the outgoing Treasury Minister, rode into office promising to ameliorate these problems; instead, he wasted political capital on reforms that could not make it through the Knesset, accomplished little, or were simply counterproductive—leaving the Israeli economy in worse condition, according to Shoham Wexler, than it was two years ago:
The tax burden is scaring away investors and leaving the private sector in the lurch, which has already been buried under the weight of taxes and regulation. As Treasury Minister, Lapid wasted hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars. Rather than invest the money in reducing the tax burden on businesses, the stock market, and companies, and providing credit for small businesses, Lapid preferred to invest the money through the public sector. The enormous budgets of the Transportation Ministry continued to become more bloated, and the same is true for the boondoggles of Education Ministry reform and the government companies.
Lapid is a grave disappointment with zigzags, unsuccessful reforms. The Treasury Minister who declared “I am not a socialist” failed to understand the important principle of capitalism: entrepreneurship. Rather than encourage it, he crushed it. Rather than release the public’s money back to the public by reducing taxes and government intervention, he increased government involvement in the economy, dissuading both investors and consumers from increasing their activity.
Read more on Mida: http://mida.org.il/2014/12/23/scorched-economic-earth/