The nightclub massacre last week in Orlando, Fla., is enormously tragic, as were numerous other mass shootings in recent years. And after other such grave incidents, some opine that “well, now we are going to have gun control.” Don’t count…
Category: Other
New scam involves old financial practices
Perhaps people are particularly naive, but once again I am shaking my head and asking, “How could anyone be so stupid?” while reading the news of what seems to be yet another Ponzi scheme. This one is small, reportedly involving…
New limits welcome on tax-exempt bonds for marginally public projects
Such is the power of the Internal Revenue Service that its issuance of proposed new rules this week limiting the issuance of municipal bonds caused thousands of squeals across the nation and, reportedly, one eerie moan from Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery.…
Government can do no good, except where it can
The sharpest ironies often are unintentional. Eating breakfast at a coffee shop in Slayton this past week, I overheard an older farmer in the next booth explaining how adopting “precision farming was boosting his yields and profits.” This method matches…
Curious voters raise good questions
Fervid assertions made in the 2016 election campaigns prompt reader queries about the underlying economic realities. Here are some of the more frequent ones: Would boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour cause high inflation? No, for a couple…
Farm bust coming, especially for large producers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts farmers will produce a record corn crop in 2016. I predict that 2016 will go down in farm history for another reason. This is the year in which a “farm financial crisis” will become…
Europe-U.S. recoveries are a study in contrasts
Economics usually doesn’t involve experiments, but world events occasionally create them. This happened after the global financial debacle began to unfold in 2007, as the United States and the European Union responded very differently to the ensuing recession. Data on…
Economic estimates usually imprecise at best
No, the Green Line light rail project did not result in $4.2 billion in economic growth for the Twin Cities. That someone at the Metropolitan Council recently suggested this shows how hard it is to measure and attribute economic results…
Economists skeptical about $15 minimum
There is remarkable agreement among economists on two effects of a minimum wage: (1) As long as it stays within the inflation-adjusted range it has been in for most of the last 75 years, it has little negative effect on…
For-profit college Latin lesson — caveat emptor
Twelve state attorneys general, including Minnesota’s Lori Swanson, have asked the federal government to revoke the accreditation authority of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the largest body that certifies the academic credentials of for-profit post-secondary schools. And…