News

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

Economically speaking, there is no good reason for states to keep and even expand already existing onerous occupation licenses. Multiple jobs are lost annually due to licensing laws. And this…

Covid-19 is not equally dangerous to everybody. Some are more likely to be infected than others. Of those who are, some are more likely to be hospitalized, need ICU care,…

Yesterday the Minneapolis Star Tribune featured an article discussing how Minnesota Power, an investor owned electric utility in northern Minnesota, was relieved that the state’s iron ore mines were starting…

Providers have been able to ward off the risk of permanent closure by cutting their own pay or digging into their own savings. The government handouts provided later during the…

This week the Eagan Police Department invited residents of the Twin Cities suburb to an open forum on policing. It was an effort to reach out to those with concerns…

Heather Mac Donald's fact-filled presentation on crime, race and policing was live-streamed on YouTube, but the tech giant was quick to remove the speech off its servers for "violating" the…

If Minnesota is to get on top of its Covid-19 crisis, reducing transmission between care homes by reducing shared staff seems to be an important part of the strategy. 

In November of 2019, the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an opinion piece by the Strib Editorial Board “Not This Mine, Not This Location.” The piece sought to lay out why…

Concern over catching COVID-19 in person at the polls has reportedly been the impetus for more Minnesotans to vote by absentee ballot in the forthcoming August 11 primary. The threat…

The false narrative that inadequate funding is the root of our education problems paints Minnesota as a state allergic to accountability.

Teacher salaries have risen over the last decade by 19.3 percent, but teachers' total compensation (salary and benefits) have increased even more, by 28.5 percent over the same time period,…

Xcel Energy CEO, Ben Fowke, was the fourth-highest paid CEO in Minnesota in 2019, making $23.3 million in total compensation, according to an analysis in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. As proponents of…

Not only does Gov. Walz get to the make the rules Minnesotans live by via executive order, but he gets to break them when he feels like it. For proles…

Teachers' unions across the country (including the St. Paul Federation of Educators), the Democratic Socialists of America and other left-leaning organizations endorsed and coordinated demonstrations yesterday (August 3) as part…

It’s hard for nervous parents who are unable to count on public schools fully opening this fall to miss the headlines popping up all over. Here’s a few recent examples.…

There is an interesting paradox among liberal environmentalists. On the one hand, they want a Minnesota Green New Deal where all the electricity in the state is provided by a…

A number of statues stand on the ground of the Minnesota Capitol. Since 1931, these have included a statue of Christopher Columbus. The Columbus monument was erected, in part, to…

A 'failed state' is defined as "a state whose political or economic system has become so weak that the government is no longer in control." For a few days in…

The high cost of childcare in Minnesota - caused chiefly by government regulation - strains families and our economy, especially in Greater Minnesota. 

Students required to take a high school exit exam are 7 percent less likely to be arrested, according to a paper by Prof. Matthew Larsen published in Education Next. Minnesota used…

Energy policy in Minnesota is a mess. Liberal politicians, profit-seeking, government-approved monopoly utilities like Xcel Energy, and environmental groups are pushing for the closure of Minnesota’s reliable coal-fired power plants,…

In the midst of the overheated political responses to the Twin Cities riots, Minnesotans steadily support their cops but overwhelmingly expect reform.

With crime on the rise, there is evidence that business are starting to recognize Minneapolis as somewhere to be avoided.