When Boston Scientific received recent federal approval to sell a new drug-coated stent, the Twin Cities news media uniformly portrayed the act as good news. While based in Massachusetts, the firm has plants here that may add 2,000 jobs because…
Category: Other
Placing value on thanks and giving
The great American philosopher Woody Allen once said, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” That is a good insight to remember on a day when tradition says we should reflect on what we have that is…
Make penalty match profit
The latest news from the accounting firm front — KPMG’s apparent failure to register a tax shelter — offers strong support for an assertion by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker. Becker, famous for his applications of microeconomics theory to marriage and…
Using common funds for the common good
The energy legislation emerging from Congress in recent weeks is a sterling example of the kind of government action that makes us poorer as a society. It is chock full of unnecessary subsidies to nuclear power and the petroleum industry.…
The nation’s well-being supersedes political antics
The World Trade Organization’s ruling on U.S. tariffs on steel imports was, to put it politely, “not unexpected.” That is another way of saying that anyone familiar with rules embodied in treaties our country voluntarily signed knew from the outset…
Internet tax issues tangled
Ask people if we should tax the Internet and you get very negative responses. Ask if Internet businesses should get special exemptions from the taxes that competitors pay and the responses are less one-sided and adamant. Questions of taxation and…
New lesson in budget balancing during the doldrums
Is it prudent to do something stupid just because you promised you would? What if the stupid act was something that you committed to as part of a group and others in the group have already kept their commitment? This…
Fund news eclipses GDP
Much high-profile economic news has occurred recently, most notably an advance estimate released last Friday that the U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in the third quarter. In addition, every day brings more news…
Health care needs change, but what’s feasible?
In a democracy such as ours, widespread dissatisfaction over some issue may be a necessary condition for reform, but it is not a sufficient one. That is the lesson that current public dissatisfaction with health care teaches. Many people complain…
Funding formula paved with intentions
It doesn’t matter if the venue is Slayton, St. Paul, Washington, D.C., or Brussels. If there is a pot of money, people from different regions will fight over it and economists will not be able to offer much advice. Society…