The Federal Reserve met last week, upping its target for short term interest rates. That we will return to the range of interest rates that prevailed for decades is about as noteworthy as the sun rising in the east. Yet…
Author: Ed Lotterman
Pollution can’t be a local concern
The Trump administration’s proposal to cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget raises the question of what is the optimal geographic area to cover with some economic policy. Administration supporters quickly asserted that the cuts are a good idea because states…
Economic twists and turns of demon rum
The Minnesota Legislature seems well on its way to repealing a longstanding ban on Sunday retail sales of liquor. In economic terms, this is a tempest in a miniscule teapot, but the fact that this small change rates headlines illustrates…
Worried about border taxes? You should be.
So why should Target and Best Buy worry about border taxes? Major U.S. retailers don’t want taxes on imports and are lobbying hard to keep them from being imposed, either as classic import tariffs or as a “border equalization” feature…
Some inconvenient truths about controlling water pollution
Minnesota has a lot of water and we value it, especially our lakes and rivers. These are part of our culture, our collective ethos. But we don’t agree necessarily on how best to protect them. Gov. Mark Dayton has advocated…
Some economic views on allowing for-profit HMOs
It is the passing of an era. After some 40 years, for-profit Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMOS, will be able to operate in Minnesota. The Legislature recently repealed a ban on for-profit HMOs, enacted in the 1970s, when this form…
Who really pays in Trump’s border wall plan
President Trump’s insistence that Mexico will pay for a border wall has piqued much interest in emails I’ve received from readers. The issue is as much political and emotional as it is economic. However, the underlying economics applies to a…
Rising interest rates, bigger federal deficits a déjà vu of 1980s
You cannot change a country’s tax rates, government spending and interest rates without also changing the exchange value of that country’s currency. Educated people in smaller or poorer countries understand that, but many in our own nation do not, in…
What Essar lawsuit teaches us about global trade
If Shakespeare had written about contemporary corporate strategy rather than medieval dynastic politics, the phrase “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless subsidiary!” might have gone down in history. The newly filed lawsuit by the…
Pre-school education bonds are interesting experiment
Minnesota may soon join Utah in using “social bonds” to fund early childhood education. Such bonds use money raised in private capital markets, as with building a new power plant or high school, to fund education or social programs. The…