The Swiss central bank’s abrupt abandonment of its 3-year-old policy of fixing the value of the Swiss franc relative to the euro has gotten a lot of attention. It also has created a lot of confusion. That is understandable, since…
Free college for everyone has societal benefits
President Barack Obama traveled to Tennessee to propose that tuition at community colleges and most public vocational-technical schools be made free for everyone. Skeptics observe that this was empty grandstanding on his part, since there is no way the current…
Analysis yields gasoline tax insight
At 28.5 cents per gallon, the Minnesota gas tax is at its highest level ever, yet some politicians, mostly Democrats, and some business and farm groups want to raise it. Nearly all Republicans oppose any increase, with the leaders vowing…
Change remains the one constant
Economist Josef Schumpeter’s observation that capitalism is a process of “creative destruction,” was insightful. A market economy inherently engenders forces that create new ventures but destroy others. The sorts of incentives, and responses to them, that brought Intel, Microsoft and…