Can government really “finance” a stadium for the Twins without “funding” it? Get outta here. Are you nuts or something? The idea of financing without funding — a distinction posited by the governor and his finance commissioner — is legally…
Author: Ed Lotterman
Change hurts some as it helps many
I was reading my morning paper, and had just noted a headline reporting that Northwest had followed rival Delta by abolishing commissions to travel agents, when my wife interrupted me to report on her cell phone research. Yes, we are…
Economist Tobin had rare Keynesian policy success
I’ll never forget hearing that the 1980 Nobel Prize in Economics had been given to Yale economist James Tobin. I was staying at a little 15-family sheep farm some 14,800 feet above sea level near Cerro de Pasco, Peru. Bleary…
Any benefit to soybean growers would be global
In contrast to many conservative economists, I don’t think Robin Hood’s redistribution policies were necessarily bad. My conservative colleagues are right, though, when they say there is no way to prove that taking from the rich and giving to the…
Steel tariffs cave to politics, but are bad economic policy
President Bush, who ran on a platform of eliminating “tariffs and terriers” that restricted international trade, has ceded to political pressures and imposed tariffs on a significant proportion of U.S. steel imports. This is a bad economic policy, and the…
Qwest actions raise old issues
Where is Ida Tarbell when we need her? The recent disclosure that Qwest, the largest telephone service supplier in the Upper Midwest, granted favorable treatment to certain firms is reminiscent of the charges the famous muckraker leveled against the Standard…
Economic policies usually are two-edged swords
The news wasn’t exactly earth-shattering. The credit union for employees of the University of St. Thomas said that because of current credit conditions, it no longer will pay interest on account balances above $45,000. Since the credit union reportedly has…
Don’t blame it on forecasts
Consider the following statements made between November 1998 and February 2002: By fiscal year 2003, the balance will grow to $876 million. $1.94 billion budget deficit projected for 2002-03. Minnesota’s budget deficit is now expected to reach $2.29 billion by…
Global pressure to change policies only goes so far
“I’m not here to give advice, I’m here to lend support,” said President Bush about his economic discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. That showed unusual tact for a leader not given to diplomatic niceties. Whatever the two leaders said…
Hungry inherit the work
It was 1947. Leo Durocher’s pitchers were complaining because an African-American, Jackie Robinson, was being allowed to play in the major leagues. “He’s just the first. Just the first,” responded Durocher, one baseball’s most famous managers. “They’re all going to…