Suffice it to say Republican candidates didn’t do well on Election Day last month in urban America. Then, again, they haven’t done well in big and other good-sized cities for…
The economist Milton Friedman once said that "Nobody spends somebody else's money as wisely as he spends his own". That is one reason why it beast to let people spend as money of their…
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…
Organic food is a touchy subject. Many people think that because it is organic, it is more wholesome and better for the environment. However, there is scant empirical evidence to support these…
Answer: Yes
The 19th century poet John Godfrey Saxe is supposed to have said that laws were like sausages, people would like them less if they saw how they were made. The same goes…
The St. Paul Public Library let tens of thousands of delinquent card holders who owed fines for overdue books off the hook just in time for Christmas. The freebie fulfills…
Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein of First Trust Advisors have published a version of this interesting piece every year since 2009. Enjoy and Merry Christmas! The Bible story of the virgin…
Michael Bastasch of the Daily Caller wrote a great article, which is a victory lap of sorts, about how the town of Georgetown, Texas, which was featured in former Vice President…
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…
Happy Festivus, Everyone! In case you’re unfamiliar, Festivus is perhaps the holiest day of the year, where family members gather around an unadorned aluminum pole and air their grievances with…
The small town of Fergus Falls, Minnesota is in the news because Class Relotius, the recently-fired journalist for the German publication Der Spiegel, completely lied when writing portions of his…
There’s no law against grandstanding in court, but that doesn’t make it right. Take the case of John Schulte, a Duluth judicial referee who saw the trial of three climate…
A round-up of the last week’s economic news stories in Minnesota.
Minnesota educators looking for a non-partisan, non-union option to provide them with liability insurance, job protection coverage, and professional development have excellent options to choose from. The Association of American…
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.'
He’s only a year and a half late. But even Gov. Dayton now admits the MNLARS vehicle registration system rolled out on his watch has been nothing short of “disastrous.”…
Gov. Mark Dayton has approved large pay increases for 22 government officials, including 7 employees of the Metropolitan Council, who already make well over $100,000 per year. This is why…
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…
California Congressman Tom McClintock gives the answer in an illuminating op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal. Turns out our forests have become dangerously overcrowded ever since Congress passed costly environmental…
"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
Wind and solar simply aren’t working, and these inefficient and unreliable technologies are a key reason the Paris Climate Accord is a dismal failure. The article below is a sobering…