Few important economic questions are all or nothing. Rather, the issue usually is ‘how much.’ A recent letter to the editor serves as an example: ‘Not only will going green, along with the proposed cap and trade, destroy commerce, trade…
Category: Other
What, us worry? Financial folly tales
The list reminds one of Cole Porter. Moroccans do it and Greeks do it, Thais do it and Koreans do it. Some Argentines without means do it. Even Finns, Brits, Yanks and Swedes do it. No, I’m not talking about…
Jobless and not looking? They’re not counting you
It is understandable if the average citizen is confused by the latest data about jobs in Minnesota. From August to September, the number of people with nonfarm jobs dropped by some 12,000. But while the number of jobs dropped, so…
One-size-fits-all subsidies ultimately harm an industry
This generally is due to a simple lack of information. But if you see it in a congressional news release, be on your guard for intentional misrepresentation. When politicians call for subsidies to a particular industry because the market price…
Effects of stimulus aren’t in hard numbers
Last week, it was reported that the ongoing fiscal stimulus program ‘created or saved 11,800 Minnesota jobs.’ Did it really? This is one of those topics the media and the public remain largely clueless about. It often seems that both…
Ostrom a solid choice for economics Nobel
The Swedish Academy thumbed its nose at abstract theorists this week by naming Indiana University political scientist Elinor Ostrom as the first woman to win a Nobel prize in economics. Ostrom was the darkest horse in decades, appearing on none…
GDP a fine indicator, if you know what it measures
Gross domestic product and its deficiencies as an economic indicator have been in the news lately, especially in context of an initiative by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to find a better measure of a nation’s economic well-being. Sarkozy convened an…
Less than the truth is sometimes the lesser evil
Many people accept Winston Churchill’s assertion that, ‘In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’ To win a war, a government not only must conceal certain facts from its enemy but…
Politicizing the health care debate serves no one
When it comes to the health care policy proposals under discussion in Washington and across the country, it seems almost everyone finds something to dislike. Libertarians and healthy young people don’t want government to force people to buy insurance. People…
In the end, customer will pay revved FDIC premiums
My mother would have understood the implications of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s recent announcement that it is requiring U.S. banks to collectively remit advance payment of some $45 billion in future deposit insurance premiums. As a grade-schooler, I had…