Like most Minnesotans, my mood has been lifted over the past few days by news stories and photos showing people in the eastern United States struggling with a snowstorm. There is nothing that strokes our sense of Minnesota superiority than…
Alan Greenspan doesn’t owe the president anything
With all the bad things going on, it’s refreshing to come across a news report that makes you spontaneously laugh. That happened to me Thursday when Reuters quoted a White House spokeswoman saying President Bush “has a great deal of…
Ask the economists
What am I, chopped liver or something? I was deeply hurt when I read Monday that 10 Nobel Prize-winning economists and 400 others signed a statement opposing President Bush’s tax proposals. I gladly would have signed it, and I think…
Sure, we’ll help the poor, if they follow our rules
Gov. Pawlenty wants poor Minnesotans to be prevented from using food stamps to buy candy and other junk food. He’s reflecting society’s broader ambivalence about charity: We generally want to help the poor, but we don’t trust people to use…