It’s Your Money!

To prove to Minnesotans just how inefficiently our tax dollars are spent, American Experiment embarks on a quest to find the most wasteful, useless, and just plain silly government expenditures. The Golden Turkey Award is bestowed upon the most bird-brained examples of waste in state government; the silly spending that invokes a facepalm for any common-sense person. Vote for your favorite now!

The Power Hungry Podcast: Bjorn Lomborg

Bjorn Lomborg is the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank that “researches the smartest ways to do good.” In this episode, Robert talks to Lomborg about his new book– False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet – including his views on why climate policies are “often worse than ineffective,” why we need to spend more money on adapting to a changing climate, the prospects for a carbon tax, the need for innovation in nuclear, and yes, why he always wears a black T-shirt.

Even with the recent surge, thankfully, Tim Walz’s morgue still sits empty

You might think the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Minnesota would have hurt the chances of the $6.9 million morgue winning our inaugural Golden Turkey Award for silly spending. You would be wrong. No matter how concerned they are about the virus, Minnesotans overwhelmingly agree that buying a shuttered fruit warehouse in St. Paul to serve as an emergency COVID-19 morgue was a bad idea. The morgue is currently leading the Golden Turkey voting with over 60% of the vote. When the Governor bought the abandoned fruit company warehouse back in May, the state was averaging 12.5 deaths per...

AMERICAN EXPERIMENT BOOK SHELF

Minnesota’s Economic News – W/E 11/20/20

A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.

Covid-19 and the future of childcare regulation

The future of a strong childcare industry after Covid in Minnesota lies in ensuring that the state does not go back to stringent rules that have contributed to a much worse childcare crisis during this pandemic.

Millions of students in distance-only learning model have limited contact with teachers

Millions of students across the United States are relying on distance learning for their education, but many aren't getting live contact from a teacher.

‘Our kids are not all right’: New report finds teens struggling due to school closure and isolation

A new report by the Child Mind Institute and the California Partners Project has found that teens are struggling with isolation from school closures and have greatly increased their screen time to cope. 

Minnesota’s total ICU capacity has fallen by 229 beds – 10.6% – since early October

Admissions are surging so why is capacity falling?