With every paycheck, public employees faithfully hand over a percentage of their pay, and taxpayers match or exceed that contribution. Both should be able to trust that the pension funds,…
I have decided that Mitch deserves at least one more post from me looking back at his and the Center’s accomplishments in the “early days” of our existence. And I…
This op-ed appeared in the Star Tribune on December 14, 2017. Star Tribune file photo. Like many states, Minnesota is on the bandwagon for renewable energy, especially wind power. Despite…
Minnesota needs productive workers. Evidence suggests that, over the last few years, we have been losing them. This is not good for our state's economy. Assuming that our high personal…
I checked with experts on the Hill this morning: the tax bill could be amended in conference to add new provisions like the 'Hillsdale Exemption' (it's called "air dropping"). But…
The need for skilled workers in Minnesota is on the rise. Many companies are struggling to find diverse, qualified candidates who have the right knowledge and skills to enter critical…
Minnesota has been on the cutting edge of mandating renewable energy quotas for the past decade. But to what end? Center of the American Experiment answered that question in our…
Construction on replacing Enbridge 3 with a far superior pipeline hasn’t even gotten underway yet in Minnesota. In fact, the project hasn’t even received regulatory approval from the state yet,…
If Minnesota is to solve its looming workforce talent shortfall, the state’s employers will have to explore new talent pools and push for a higher workforce participation rate. The Minnesota…
Good news on Minnesota’s workforce development crisis: Innovative high schools are setting the stage for a revolution in career education. A recent Star Tribune article surveyed this burgeoning movement. “The…
A major factor in our state’s workforce development crisis is a mismatch between the skills workers have and those required by in-demand jobs. But there’s good news: A vocational exploration…
A frequent theme in the many interviews I’ve conducted over the last year, as well as in much of the reading I’ve done for American Experiment’s “Great Jobs Without a…
If immigration is going to be used as a policy tool to boost Minnesotans per capita incomes, the focus will have to be on attracting skilled immigrants.
Concerns over the left’s attacks on free speech, particularly on college campuses, made the front page above the fold this week in the Star Tribune. American Experiment’s John Hinderaker, who…
Minnesota's workforce is set to shrink as a share of its population. To keep GDP per person growing, our state will need to improve worker productivity.
Between now and 2035, Minnesota's declining Labor Force Participation is going to slow GDP per capita growth.
Today’s Star Tribune has a front-page story on the assault on free speech at the University of Minnesota, in which I am quoted: The barricades were in place outside Anderson…
Minneapolis city officials’ mania for bike lanes could be an emergency. That’s the diagnosis by Dr. Geoffrey Emerson in the Star Tribune in the latest cry for help from…
In 1980, Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman turned TV presenter. Over ten episodes, his PBS program Free to Choose explored the workings of the market economy and explained how…
The laws of economics applied just as much in 1946 as they do now. Here, in Newsweek from this day in 1946, the great economic writer Henry Hazlitt explains some…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
Today the United States Commission on Civil Rights will hold a public briefing in Washington, D.C., entitled The School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Intersections of Students of Color with Disabilities. The briefing…
Even though capitalism is the superior economic system, polls show alarming numbers of younger Americans preferring socialism or communism. The excellent new book, Back in the USSR: What life was…
This is another one of my “post-Roast” tributes reflecting on some of Mitch Pearlstein’s accomplishments during the “early days” of the Center. My previous piece, which includes the fun poem…