Minnesotans’ electric bills have soared in the last decade, due to aggressive renewable energy mandates forcing a massive build-out of wind generation capacity. Yet no one did a comprehensive analysis…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota
January's data saw the continuation of a trend. Minnesota's job growth is being driven by relatively low productivity jobs.
In forced-dues states like Minnesota, teachers and cops are forced to fund the political agenda of their union. So for example, in 2016, the teachers’ union and AFSCME (both AFL-CIO…
Yesterday, the Minnesota Senate’s E-12 Finance Committee held a three-hour hearing on proposed legislation to require academic balance in the public schools. The push for this legislation arises out of…
Today the Star Tribune reported that hundreds of students “walked out” of their schools to protest against guns and school shootings at the Capitol in St. Paul: The article itself…
Low pay is a symptom of low productivity. This is the real problem to solve if we want to raise wages.
Reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of allowing public employees to legally strike, especially when union members are sitting on the school board. If strikes are illegal, as we…
Minimum wage advocates often argue that the money to cover these higher wages will just come out of the pockets of 'the rich'. The recent Citizens League report suggests that,…
Imposing tariffs to solve a trade deficit is a harmful non-solution to what is a non-problem in the first place.
The Teachers Retirement Association (TRA) told legislators last month that it wanted to drop its assumed rate of return from 8.5% to 7.5%. TRA is the last fund in the…
Hard to believe that’s it’s already been about a year since the Dakota Access Pipeline protests petered out next door in North Dakota. Instead of coddling activists who trashed the…
Hard-working public employees are forced to pay money to a government union as a pre-condition of employment. The decision to financially support a union is a decision that employees should…
Many Edina students, parents, teachers and staff have expressed their appreciation for our efforts to reform the politicized Edina school system. This email, from an Edina High School student, is…
When people talk about 'winners' and 'losers' in trade, they are usually wrong. To see why, think of baseball cards.
One line from the Legislative Auditor’s critical report tells you everything you need to know about the Minnesota Investment Fund (MIF), a taxpayer-funded program under the Minnesota Department of Employment…
The current issue of the New Labor Forum includes a long column by Max Fraser, a left-winger who writes for publications like the Nation and Dissent and, improbably, is associated…
It’s never over til it’s over, but big labor has largely conceded its public employee union monopoly through forced dues and fair-share fees will end when the Supreme Court rules…
The reevaluation of wind energy in the light of its high costs and low benefits in comparison to natural gas in particular continues to spread from state to state. One…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota
This brief Associated Press article is a classic of the genre, on an increasingly important subject: A new study highlighting wide gaps in school discipline between Minnesota’s white and minority…
Maybe the latest embarrassment to hit State Auditor Rebecca Otto in her feckless quest to force Minnesota counties to use her office’s over-priced services will convince her to give it…
"The internal AFT slideshow predicts that if the Supreme Court rules to undercut agency fees, the increased time spent on “member maintenance” will detract from the organization’s “other more progressive…
As Minnesota's labor market tightens, wages are finally rising. This isn't a freak, one off result, as evidence from the United Kingdom shows.