As I write this, late last week, the U.S. Senate seemed poised to indeed pass a tax bill. This will no doubt be followed by reconciliation with the House version and a signature by President Donald Trump. A tax plan…
3M PFC lawsuit classic example of economics of external costs
The state of Minnesota, acting through Attorney General Lori Swanson, is suing 3M Co. for $5 billion in damages caused by the company’s disposal of chemicals called PFCs in ways that allegedly polluted sources of municipal water in Oakdale and…
Misunderstandings and misinformation about the corporate income tax
True tax reform is complicated, and the current bastardized faux-reform is moving through Congress in such helter-skelter manner that a comprehensive evaluation is near impossible. But it can be helpful to examine key issues that are complex and often misrepresented…
Local TB cases are full of economic lessons
Modern medicine has found responses to so many diseases in recent decades that we often are taken aback when an old scourge re-emerges. Yet that has happened in the 17 cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis seen in Ramsey County over the…