Jesse Ventura is leading a trade group to Cuba, but critics of Fidel Castro are angered by his action. When I heard that statement on a local radio station recently, I did a double take. I consider myself a strong…
Author: Ed Lotterman
Hog prices and office rents show irrationality in action
I am sure that Nobel Laureate Robert Lucas has done nothing to offend Minnesota farmers and commercial property managers while serving as a visiting scholar at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve in the autumns of 2000 and 2001. Nevertheless, these farmers…
When ownership means leadership
It seems that “Neutron Jack” Welch is not only back in the news but also is making the monologues of late night talk shows. The retired chairman of General Electric is being pilloried for the perquisites he reportedly receives, including…
U.S. should propose alternative to Kyoto Protocol
The world’s atmosphere is like the fish in Minnesota’s public waters. Both are common pool resources. History and economic theory teach us that common pool resources tend to be overused — even destroyed — when societies do not develop effective…
Life lessons color economists’ views
Consider a conversation that Gary Becker, the brilliant and prolific Chicago economist who won a Nobel Prize 10 years ago, had with his mother: “I remember I went to my mother (and) said, ‘Mom, I want to be a professor.’…
Fishing for common economic ground
I don’t fish, so I personally won’t be affected by recent judicial decisions that limit state conservation officers’ ability to enter fish houses or to stop boats to determine if anglers are obeying limit laws. Nor am I a lawyer,…
Successful economies need cooperation and competition
My son and I were just returning to civilization after six days in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I pulled up to the stop sign where the Sawbill Trail runs into the North Shore Drive at Tofte and looked to…
Society’s needs can be a messy process
“Social Engineering Ahead” is the warning on a set of billboards sponsored by the Taxpayers League of Minnesota. The signs, which include graphics of a tangle of train tracks and roads, reportedly are intended to warn people that initiatives such…
Health news brings classic ‘demand shift’
Though it isn’t good news for many older women, Minnesota flax growers are noticeably happier since new scientific evidence emerged that hormone replacement therapy carries more dangers than originally thought. Meanwhile, economists are taking note of a significant “demand shift.”…
Bailouts are nice but they don’t solve problems
Amid news of political campaigns, volatile stock markets and the Middle East, it has been easy to miss the worsening economic and political problems in Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay. But the situation is dire, and questions have arisen over the…