A notable feature of today’s insurance business in the U.S. is the large lines of insurance that hang almost entirely on a government mandate or government subsidy. Regardless of whether these subsectors are profitable, unlike traditional life or property and…
Category: Other
Producers know the cycle of beef price declines
Falling stock markets are getting the headlines, but Minnesota cattle producers face even sharper and much more real-world declines. At the end of 2015, farm prices for fat cattle were down nearly a fourth from highs reached a year earlier.…
China’s selloff of U.S. bonds affects us all
Contrary to the phrasing of many news accounts, China is not devaluing its currency. The value of the yuan relative to the dollar is indeed declining, but the Chinese central bank is intervening in foreign exchange markets to limit that…
No easy solutions for brain drain
Around here, we joke about how a dumb Minnesotan moves to Iowa and raises the average IQ in both states. Iowans tell the same joke with the dolt moving the other way. Old, indeed, but it contains a kernel of…
Politicians pander to single sector
There is a bipartisan policy consensus among key elected officials in Minnesota: Let’s stiff 5.2 million Minnesota consumers — and hundreds of millions of others around our entire country — with higher prices for any product containing steel, and let’s…
Corporate merger bad for consumers
If federal regulators allow the proposed merger between chemical giants Dow and DuPont, it will underscore the fact that economic efficiency is not a high priority for either of the two major political parties right now. Just as with similar…
New Fed president tackles ‘too big to fail’
The Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee squeezed the trigger this month and raised its target for the Federal Funds rate, the interest rate banks charge one another for overnight loans of reserves, by a quarter of 1 percent. December 2015 marks…
Interview, Idaho Statesman: Why economist Ed Lotterman is pessimistic
After a November 2015 visit with readers and staff of the Idaho Statesman, the paper published an interview written by Zach Kyle.
Budget surpluses invite balancing acts
The thing about surpluses is they never last. Our nation’s federal system of 50 states makes it a laboratory of democracy and that is especially true in fiscal policy. Illinois, Louisiana and Kansas, for example, still wallow in budgetary messes,…
Targeted business tax breaks unhelpful to society
Governments have long used tax breaks, in lieu of direct subsidies, to attract business or real estate developments to a particular locality. This also has been a perennial political issue. The use of tax increment financing allows government to fund…