John Phelan

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

Private sector broadcasters like NBC have an incentive to provide programming the public likes. 'Public' sector broadcasters like TPT have an incentive to provide programming the government likes. That is…

Over the last year, Minnesota's working age population has grown faster than that of the United States generally, but employment has increase more slowly. As a result, while the number…

Talk about bad timing if you’re a green-energy profiteer. Just one day before the scandal that led to the resignation of Representative Jamie Long (DFL) from his hand-crafted job at…

The recent surge in attacks in downtown Minneapolis does not seem to be driven by economic deprivation but by simple sadism.

With robberies in downtown’s western half up 70% over the same period last year, 63% of Minneapolis residents support expanding the city’s police force to 850 patrol officers.

Great news! The federal government has solved all the problems facing the United States and can now devote time and effort to putting the Green Bay Packers on TV.

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

“The gangsters of Chicago are out to take over the city and are on their way to doing so unless they are stopped. We are starting to see business move…

Which generates the greatest benefit to St. Paul's residents - spending $1.125 million employing five police officers for 3.75 years, or spending $1.125 million to reduce the global temperature by…

Data from the National Transportation Database shows that the Twin Cities' Light Rail system is the least safe in America.

2019 has already seen more homicides in Saint Paul than in 6 of the previous 10 years. So why does Mayor Carter want to cut five police officers?

Minnesota's diverse economy is a great source of strength for the state. But, as the last boom and boost shows, we cannot afford to be complacent. 

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

It has been a long and winding road from the back streets of medieval London via 17th century Boston to the U.S. Bank Stadium this weekend. But, when the Vikings'…

New research finds that "[t]here is growing evidence that taxes can affect the geographic location of people both within and across countries"

Surely, when San Francisco's politicians passed rent control laws they didn't intend to increase income inequality in the city. But that is what happened. Once again, we see the truth…

Excessive fees and regulations are the problem – high prices are just the symptom. We need the supply of housing to expand. Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars…

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

Minnesota is one of the highest taxed states in America. Research shows that these high tax rates disincentivize R&D. And the data shows that our state lags the national average…

A new paper suggests that Minnesotans looking for tax policy which will give our economy a boost should look to Saint Paul rather than D.C.

In July 2018, Minnesota's unemployment rate was the 8th lowest in the United States. In July 2019, that was down to 16th.

Big firms can bear the costs of complying with regulations much more easily than small firms.

Possibly the main debate in economic policy today is growth vs redistribution: who gets how much of the cake, or should we try to bake a bigger cake? Arguments in…