The brouhaha this month over the U.S. payment of $400 million plus interest to our enemy Iran over a long-forgotten defense contract offers lessons both in economics and history. It blew up in the second week in August, exactly 102…
Author: Ed Lotterman
Unintended effects of $15 minimum, mandatory sick leave are complex
Justice Louis Brandeis argued 84 years ago that a state can “serve as a laboratory, and try novel social and economic experiments.” That has been true for initiatives such as Oregon’s citizen panels for prioritizing medical treatments under Medicaid during…
Blame interest rates for farmland price boom and bust
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the price of farmland, averaged across the whole country, fell in 2015. That puts the official seal on what people involved with farming in the Midwest have felt for two years — that…
Economists not as hot on all trade deals as you might think
Both presidential candidates now oppose new trade deals. Most saliently the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that awaits ratification by Congress. But that may cause much less distress for economists than many would assume. That lower trade barriers can increase economic efficiency…
Study links race, education with earnings potential
What people earn on average differs among gender and race. Men earn more than women, and whites earn more than members of other races. But beyond these general facts, things get complicated: What jobs are people seeking and getting? What…
Numbers can be enlightening and misleading
More than a century ago, Irish physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) argued that numerical data is fundamental in research: “When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” That meshes with the contemporary…
Essar Steel case is one for the textbooks
The forthcoming bankruptcy court battle between the state and Essar Steel Minnesota over a stalled project in Nashwauk, Minn., teaches many economic lessons. First, it is an example of why bankruptcy is a necessary evil for an efficient economy. Aggrieved…
Charting a U-turn in international trade is complicated
While nations can untangle themselves from international trade agreements they made in the past, it is about as impossible to return a previous “normal” as it would be to unscramble an omelet. That is, a nation can return its own…
European Union is a victim of tragic overreach
Because he had once hurled himself out the door of a C-47 over the Netherlands, my old platoon sergeant in the 82nd Airborne had personally experienced how a complicated, overly optimistic and poorly thought-out multinational effort can turn into a…
Government response to hazards still haphazard
Sometimes, truth comes from the mouths of babes. Other times, the source is geezers. That was true for an overheard conversation among four retirees in a Slayton diner booth next to mine recently. When queried about what he was doing,…