Taxes are incentives. If we tax something, we get less of it. Indeed, this is what so-called 'sin taxes' are based on. High rates of taxation on income from investment -…
If you want to help low paid workers its simple; you just vote in politicians who promise to make it more expensive to buy their labor and employers will just…
Improved productivity is the main source of per capita income growth. The two main drivers of that are education and Research & Development. Our state performs below average in both.…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
The Politics of beer
Governor Walz talked a good game in the interview by saying he supported copper-nickel mining in Minnesota and that we must follow the science, but his selection of Sarah Strommen as…
This column, by American Experiment Chairman Ron Eibensteiner, appears in the new Winter 2019 Issue of Thinking Minnesota. All the political talk about “Two Minnesotas” in this past campaign season…
Last year I participated in a debate about the future of copper nickel mining in Minnesota at the Theater of Public Policy with Kevin Lee, from the Minnesota Center for…
A new book sounds at times like the stuff of a Democratic caucus, at others like grist for a GOP one. Either way, it sure makes you think. This op-ed…
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard didn’t hold anything back in one of his last official acts in office when it came to his neighbor to the east. Daugaard announced that…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
Raising prices to help tackle a high cost of living might well be #peakgovernment
In a front-page story in the Star Tribune, “Help Wanted: Homebuilders Need Workers” (December 27), reporter Jim Buchta opened by noting how the “labor crunch is hitting home in the…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
Nicotine addiction means that smokers will suck up small price increases resulting from increased cigarette taxes - demand is 'inelastic' in the jargon. That means that, to really have an…
This op ed appeared December 22nd, 2018 in the Duluth News Tribune. The economist Paul Krugman once wrote that, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
Great news! The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has granted the final permits for the PolyMet copper-nickel project in northern Minnesota to move forward. According to PCA: “The Minnesota Pollution Control…
"So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads…
A serious look at our economy dispels the political hype that Minnesota is a 'blue state that works.'
In an attack on our report on Minnesota's economy, City Pages claims that ‘Despite propaganda, Minnesota’s ‘high tax’ economy is crushing Wisconsin, Iowa’. But every bit of tax data cited…
"This is the end of the internet as we know it" - Sen. Bernie Sanders, December 2017 "Hello, I'm still here" - The internet as we know it, December 2018
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
As the economist Assar Lindbeck put it, "In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing."