John Phelan

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

The decline of teen employment doesn't just exacerbate the challenges Minnesota's aging population poses, it postpones the accumulation of 'soft skills' which will help these kids throughout their working lives.

China's leaders are not fools. They might not practice democracy, but they do understand it. Their retaliatory tariffs have been concentrated on agricultural exports from places like Minnesota.

“Every contractor wants to come work for St. Paul Public Schools because it’s frickin’ open checkbook”. Why is government so careless with your hard earned cash?

What's in a name? Intentions, when it comes to taxes. The actual outcome might be very different indeed. 

The devil is in the detail, but early indications are that we can give two qualified cheers to the budget deal thrashed out in Saint Paul over the weekend. 

(St. Paul, MN) – John Phelan, Economist at Center of the American Experiment, released the following statement in response to the two-year budget deal announced by Gov. Walz and legislative leaders: “Minnesotans spoke out…

Forty years ago this month, Margaret Thatcher became British Prime Minister.

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

Minnesotans are some of the hardest working citizens in America. At a time when the state’s politicians have never had it so good in terms of revenue, they should not…

There are great things about Minnesota which make it a wonderful place to live. But its economy is not, perhaps, foremost among them.

The argument that Minnesota performs well on rankings like those of U.S. News and World Report just is not supported by the evidence.

Lower tax rates have been followed by higher tax revenues. Even so, Minnesota's DFL wants to hike taxes because...they think there is going to be a recession? Who does that?

On Friday, the Department of Minnesota Management and Budget reported revenue that was $489 million higher in April than had been projected. As the Star Tribune reported, Personal and corporate…

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

It is possible that Gov. Newsom really did think that gas taxes could be hiked without driving up prices, there are many people for whom economics is just something that…

Who will bear the burden of Minnesota's proposed 70% gas tax hike, sellers or consumers? That depends on what alternatives the consumers have.

Minnesota’s HQ2 bid is subject to transparency laws. So why didn’t the State release the bid back in 2017? Apparently, Governor Dayton did not think taxpayers had the right to…

On average, states which saw the largest gains in household income for the top 5% between 2010 and 2017 also saw the largest gains in household income for the bottom…

“Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another” - Milton Friedman

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

City Pages is great if you want to know where to hear live bluegrass or buy a vegan burger. But if you want any understanding of economic policy, look elsewhere. 

If Minnesota had matched the national rate of GDP growth since 2010, per capita GDP would have been $1,418 higher than it was in 2018.

New data shows that Minnesota had the 22nd fastest growing economy in the US in 2018, down from 14th in 2017.