Since the genie was let out of the bottle 30 years ago, expanding gambling has been a popular way to increase government spending without raising taxes. Now we may use it to finance a new football stadium. Economics cannot say…
Category: Other
Pain of higher gas prices outweighs economic benefits
Do oil price spikes really slow economic growth and harm people’s disposable incomes? Or is this just “nonsense,” to use the words of Caroline Baum, a Bloomberg columnist, in a recent op-ed pooh-poohing the idea that oil price increases harm…
Instead of a stadium, why not just pay off the owners?
Despite much evidence that most Minnesotans don’t want tax money to go for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium, the odds seem to be in favor of a deal that would involve more than half a billion dollars of public money.…
Not even money market funds are risk-free
It’s midnight. Do you know where your money market mutual fund is? Just as with a teenager, your money may well be out somewhere you don’t like and doing something that would horrify you. Many people, especially in the upper…
Even in business, morality matters
Sometimes managers dare to step in where economists fear to tread. John G. Taft, CEO of Minneapolis-based RBC Wealth Management and author of “Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street,” thinks many of our current economic problems…
Much talk about the Fed and Bernanke, but…
Depending on who gets elected president this fall, our nation may write an interesting new chapter in monetary policy. Mitt Romney says he would replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as soon as his term is up. Newt Gingrich says…
Cutting corporate income tax rate makes sense, but…
The Obama administration’s proposal to cut the top corporate income tax rate to 28 percent may be a good idea. It purportedly also will eliminate many special provisions and thus broaden the “base” of income that is taxed. Economic theory…
Capitalist? Socialist? Pure examples of either are hard to find
A recent opinion piece about the morality of capitalism touched off an argument between two students in one of my econ classes. In this political season, people are quick to throw terms like “capitalism” and “socialism” around, and assert that…
Who needs a license? Questions to consider
On the whole, Adam Smith would approve of a bill recently introduced by Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature that would limit governments’ ability to require licensing of people in various professions. Indeed, the Scottish father of modern economics devoted a…
How much should the Fed have to say to Congress, and vice-versa?
If you like street theater, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s most recent appearances before Congress furnished plenty of it. Senators and representatives took their turns at lecturing Bernanke on the dangers of excessive expansion of the money supply. Bernanke warned…