Minnesota has a lot of water and we value it, especially our lakes and rivers. These are part of our culture, our collective ethos. But we don’t agree necessarily on how best to protect them. Gov. Mark Dayton has advocated…
Some economic views on allowing for-profit HMOs
It is the passing of an era. After some 40 years, for-profit Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMOS, will be able to operate in Minnesota. The Legislature recently repealed a ban on for-profit HMOs, enacted in the 1970s, when this form…
Who really pays in Trump’s border wall plan
President Trump’s insistence that Mexico will pay for a border wall has piqued much interest in emails I’ve received from readers. The issue is as much political and emotional as it is economic. However, the underlying economics applies to a…
Rising interest rates, bigger federal deficits a déjà vu of 1980s
You cannot change a country’s tax rates, government spending and interest rates without also changing the exchange value of that country’s currency. Educated people in smaller or poorer countries understand that, but many in our own nation do not, in…