BOHANON & STYRING: We’ll soon learn how Trump plans to beef up military
There is necessarily a trade-off between defense/foreign-policy objectives and our willingness to forgo other desirable things to pay for those tanks and troops.
Cecil Bohanon / Special to IBJ
Articles
BOHANON & STYRING: Beware of promises to spend big on infrastructure
Arguments for spending on roads and bridges always look great on paper. Alas, these schemes at the federal level seldom deliver on the rosy political rhetoric.
BOHANON & STYRING: Gender wage gap not the gulf it’s made out to be
Dozens of factors determine any worker’s pay, including occupation, educational attainment, years of experience, interruptions in work experience and a host of other intangible factors.
BOHANON & STYRING: Drugmaking business has economics like no other
Manufacturing the drug itself typically costs pennies, but getting FDA approval certifying the drug as “safe and effective” can run upward of $2 billion.
BOHANON & STYRING: Rewards app makes market, educational sense
Give the students an incentive to turn their cell phones off in class.
BOHANON & STYRING: Fed may spur investors to take too much risk
Talk is that this ultra-low interest rate environment is the “new normal.” What are the implications of ultra-low rates effectively forever?
BOHANON & STYRING: Don’t tie hands of Hoosier pension fund managers
There is a suggestion that our public pension fund managers dedicate some of the $25 billion in assets to Indiana firms only. It is argued this will spur economic development. This is a Bad Idea.
BOHANON & STYRING: Government pension plans don’t always pay up
There is the real political risk that the governmental unit might not make the necessary pension fund contributions. Mary retires and there is nothing in the kitty except the promise to tax current taxpayers to pay Mary’s pension.
BOHANON & STYRING: Taxes are paid by people, not corporations
You’ll never shake hands with any corporation, nor any other non-human entity, that ever paid a dime in taxes. Flesh-and-blood people pay all taxes.
BOHANON & STYRING: Ireland trying to take unfair tax bite out of Apple
If government establishes tax loopholes, can we blame taxpayers for taking advantage of the provisions?
BOHANON & STYRING: Obamacare woes could spur single-payer system
Lost in the season’s political noise pollution is a simple fact: This election likely will decide whether U.S. health care irreversibly slips into a single-payer government-run system.
BOHANON & STYRING: Don’t fall for politicians’ GDP gamesmanship
Economists invented GDP, then left it lying around for politicians to misuse and mangle to justify whatever they want to do!
BOHANON & STYRING: Markets at work in Indy bike share program
The Indy system gives the rider an incentive to treat the bike as his own property. Markets give users and providers incentives to do the right thing.
BOHANON & STYRING: Improving welfare programs not an easy task
Why work or find a better-paying job if it makes you no better off? Pretty much everyone agrees this is lousy, but no one yet has come up with a good answer.
BOHANON & STYRING: Saving for a rainy day is good for economy
A recent survey of U.S. households reveals that 46 percent of all households report their spending is equal to or in excess of their income.
BOHANON & STYRING: Structure of public education reflects bygone era
The current system of K-12 public education traces its roots to the one-room schoolhouse.
BOHANON & STYRING: Brexit mind-set could spark dangerous policies
Such an economically closed welfare state on steroids is a recipe for stagnation, massive underemployment and unemployment and a prescription for expanding the rolls of the welfare state.
BOHANON & STYRING: What Alcoa can teach us about economics
Alcoa and others made tons of money by finding mass-market uses for cheap aluminum, such as tea kettles. Napoleon III flaunted his pricey aluminum. It took capitalism to put it on the household stove.
BOHANON & STYRING: Myriad issues factored into UK’s Brexit vote
British voters understood full well that Brexit would likely make them poorer, but they voted for it, anyway, because they were “buying” other things.
BOHANON & STYRING: If mass transit is so efficient, why the subsidies?
Mass transit in central Indiana once was a thriving private-sector business. Before about 1930, the Indianapolis Traction and Terminal Co. profitably operated electric streetcars throughout the city.