Fervid assertions made in the 2016 election campaigns prompt reader queries about the underlying economic realities. Here are some of the more frequent ones: Would boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour cause high inflation? No, for a couple…
Farm bust coming, especially for large producers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts farmers will produce a record corn crop in 2016. I predict that 2016 will go down in farm history for another reason. This is the year in which a “farm financial crisis” will become…
Europe-U.S. recoveries are a study in contrasts
Economics usually doesn’t involve experiments, but world events occasionally create them. This happened after the global financial debacle began to unfold in 2007, as the United States and the European Union responded very differently to the ensuing recession. Data on…
Economic estimates usually imprecise at best
No, the Green Line light rail project did not result in $4.2 billion in economic growth for the Twin Cities. That someone at the Metropolitan Council recently suggested this shows how hard it is to measure and attribute economic results…