There was good news for the 120 year-round residents of Minnesota’s Northwest Angle last Friday when the Canadian government announced that residents driving through Canada to the United States will…
In January 2020, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, announced that he and his wife the Duchess would be stepping back from their roles as senior members of the royal family,…
Yesterday, President Biden made the following statement: President Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021, about a third of the way through the first quarter of the year.…
On May 14, 2020, Minneapolis Star Tribune Cartoonist Steve Sack drew a cartoon in response to the conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Governor Tony Evers (D) stay-at-home…
The April jobs report, issued on Friday, showed that, across the United States, employers added just 266,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1 percent. This…
We’ve seen many cases of interesting new learning techniques brought on by the government-mandated school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the most interesting of them all is…
Recently, I wrote an op-ed for the Star Tribune that argued that increased unemployment benefits are preventing employers from hiring. Most agree that there is an unusual situation in Minnesota’s…
As the pandemic passes and national and state economies reopen, what is in store for the economy? Some basic macroeconomics might tell us. Theory The macroeconomics of a pandemic When…
COVID “doesn’t discriminate by age”: Serious cases on the rise in younger adults So ran an MPR News headline at the weekend. I last wrote about this in November: The…
During the pandemic, states enacted numerous restrictions to curb the transmission of the virus. One of those restrictions was a stay-at-home order. In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime…
This op-ed appeared in the Star Tribune on April 28th, 2021 As Minnesota’s economy slowly begins to recover from COVID-19 and the measures taken by state government to fight it,…
Minnesota’s unemployment rate ticks down in March; Logging, mining shows strength – International Falls Journal Unemployment rates fall statewide for third month in a row – KAAL TV Unemployment rate…
Last week, I wrote about how increased unemployment benefits are preventing employers from hiring. This isn’t just a problem for Minnesota or for specific industries. As the Wall Street Journal reports:…
Last month I noted that Minnesota’s state government was planning to tax federal government loans made to businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): The PPP loaned businesses money, a…
WJON reports: After being forced to shut down for several months last year due to COVID-19 restrictions, the big challenge facing bars and restaurants now is finding enough workers to…
Last year, we released a report titled ‘Minnesota’s Border Battles‘ in which we compared the economic outcomes in Minnesota counties bordering other states with the outcomes in the border counties…
Last week, KPVI ran a report titled: ‘Some Minnesota businesses report hiring problems, citing enhanced unemployment benefits‘: With more relaxed restrictions and the promise of warmer months ahead, businesses are…
Today, Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development released unemployment numbers for March. The headline was that the our state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate ticked down from 4.5% in February…
Once again, we are reminded about how throughout the pandemic, a big emphasis was placed on feel-good actions that have little impact on COVID-19 outcomes.
Today, WCCO reports: A new survey ranks Minnesota just outside the top 10 among states with the most COVID-19 restrictions in place. WalletHub has been ranking states periodically during the pandemic,…
As COVID-19 vaccines have become available, the question has been asked ‘Who gets them first?’ We want to be lead by ‘the science’ and that tells us that “Vaccinating older…
For the second year in a row, the State of the State is fear according to Gov. Tim Walz. He delivered his State of the State speech Sunday night from…
I’ve written before about the damage that the Covid-19 pandemic and misguided government policy responses to it are having on Minnesota’s thriving brewing and distilling industry. The Minnesota Craft Beverage Council (MCBC) reports…
Numerous factors–like seasonality, herd immunity, less testing–can explain the trend for declining COVID-19 cases. What is, however, not a contender as a possible explanation for falling cases nationwide is COVID-19…