A marketing professor at the Kelley School of Business used to proclaim he could teach all one needed to know about economics in a week. That was back in the days when faculty would spend a few minutes of the morning hours in the coffee room engaged in friendly banter as well as serious discussion. The coffee room and my friend are both gone, but to me, a teacher of economics, the insult remains. Imagine-denigrating my calling, my faith, with…
Should the next U.S. president be concerned about uneven job growth? Or should he just let the market determine which states prosper and which struggle? There is no explicit national job policy to bring employment to slow-growing areas. Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. John McCain has ventured to discuss the issue. Job growth is left to the states, with each competing against the others in an expensive battle of subsidies. From 2002 to 2007, the number of U.S. jobs…
“I heard the news,” Sorethroat says. “It’s a shame and a surprise. Funny how you think there’s always time and then there isn’t. I talked with him just a week ago and we discussed plans to have lunch.” “Same here,” I say. Sorethroat, my inside informant at state government, and I are on the steps of the Capitol. We’re reflecting on the life and death of Chuck Coffey, a good man and a good friend. “He worked in this building…
No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…
After many years, my good friend the Rev. Bob arrived in Indiana. He’s been busy tending his flock at St. Lucifer’s in Kansas. After some traditional words of greeting and invocation, the Rev. Bob tore right into me. “How come you never write about positive ideas for helping Indiana get out of its economic doldrums? All you do is elaborate on the well-known truth that the Hoosier economy is a long-term mess.” “What would you suggest?” I asked. “Something no…
Last night I had a stressful dream. Instead of being the well-integrated personality that I am, in my dream I am twins. One twin is an adviser on economic matters for Gov. Mitch Daniels and the other serves in the same capacity for challenger Jill Long Each twin plows through economic data. He spins statistics that make the favored candidate’s arguments look good. The twin for Mitch argues how well Indiana’s economy is performing; the twin working for Jill makes…
The conversation between my neighbors, Paula and Paul Plain, interrupts the enjoyment I get from sitting on the deck in the dark of the night. They generally agree on whatever subject they discuss, but their voices nonetheless displace nature’s quiet. Thus, I find myself an unwilling participant in their nocturnal conversations. Last week, they were discussing the idea that young adult Hoosiers should be encouraged to remain in Indiana. “I’m so glad,” Paula crooned, “that 80 percent of central Indiana’s…
The income disparities among Indiana’s 92 counties have been growing for decades. My imperfect memory recalls no administration and no candidate that has addressed the issue. In 1970, Marion County led the state in per-capita personal income (PCPI), at 115 percent of the state’s average. At the same time, Owen County was just 66 percent of that average. Thus, the average Owen County resident had income that was 57 percent of the level enjoyed by the average Marion County resident….
My buddy Andy hates his name. He suffers because his parents were excessively influenced by “Wheel of Fortune” and named him Andreas Fawlty Towers. After years of teasing, Andy now hates just about everything. For example, he and I were having lunch at the redesigned “Steak, Shake and Sushi” as he complained about the new menu. “Foreign foods,” he said, groaning. “They take a perfectly fine menu of American classics and add something no one ought to eat. It’s bad…
We’ve just come through an Indiana primary in which the competing campaigns kept emphasizing Hoosier jobs. It would have meant more if they had talked about Hoosier wages and salaries. But then, facts are harder to digest than rhetoric. Here are some facts you can chew on. At the start of this century (2000), the average wage (total wages and salaries divided by total number of full- and parttime jobs) in Indiana was $30,401, ranking 27th in the nation. By…
A friend and I were having lunch. We were talking about an old issue: the lack of leadership in the state. Both of us agreed that Mitch Daniels has been doing a good job in following through on what he promised, whether or not folks liked it. But we were hard-pressed to find other examples of civic or political leadership. I suspect our problem may have been one of age. We’re guys who have been around for the past four…
Cynthia Cyphon called me for “insights” on the latest county statistics released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. “So what’s doing with these numbers?” she asked. “I see Hamilton County, the state’s wealthiest county, is not anymore.” I went out on the deck with my lapdog and my laptop. This was going to be a long phone conversation. “Cynthia, get your head around this,” I said. “Per-capita personal income is used widely as an indicator of economic wellbeing. That’s why…
Here I am standing in line at the grocery store. The sign above the cashier says, “Twelve items or less.” The woman in front of me has a basket with at least 20 items. Should I ask her if she can count? I am on foot waiting for the traffic light to turn green. There are other pedestrians also waiting. Should I step off the curb and cross the street if there are no cars coming? A child is sticking…
This is not a political endorsement. It is, however, a cry of outrage that a candidate for president is attacked for speaking the truth. Barack Obama has been quoted as saying, “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And it’s not surprising then [that local residents] get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy…
Housing remains one of our most domestic industries. The labor used to build the houses themselves is still local. Products we put into our homes (furnaces, plumbing, appliances, etc.) are still primarily made in the United States from domestic parts. All that is changing. More and more work is being done off-site and more of the components installed have foreign origins. Now, without our thinking about it, the financing of our homes has become an article of international trade. Once…
“It’s jobs, jobs, jobs,” presidential and gubernatorial candidates shouted last week in Indiana. And the crowds responded in the affirmative, urging the candidates to promise more jobs for more Hoosiers. OK; jobs are good, but well-paying jobs are better. Since the 1980s, the state has claimed it is interested only in jobs that pay above the average for the area in which they are located. When challenged by the fact that the jobs being acclaimed do not always meet that…
The phone rang. It was Bella Coase, outraged again. She said, “The Census Bureau’s county population estimates were mistreated by most Hoosier newspapers. They emphasized their counties as if population change were a sporting event. “They didn’t bother to examine the larger view,” Bella went on. “Only 56 of Indiana’s 92 counties grew in population between 2006 and 2007. Spencer County had no change and the remaining 35 lost population. Doesn’t it trouble you that nearly 40 percent of Hoosier…
“They” have gone home. “They” are the neighbors we asked to serve in the Indiana General Assembly. They are reasonable, pleasant, well-intentioned people who act like irresponsible, ignorant and fearful children when organized into caucuses. Legislators in a caucus are similar to slaves in a galley ship, coerced to move to the beat of a single drum, rowing in unison, not knowing where their efforts will lead. Our legislators spent months chanting old sea ditties about property tax reform. Now…
Mitch Daniels has done many controversial things as governor. He leased the Indiana Toll Road. He got rid of the state employees’ union. He convinced the Legislature to switch to daylight-saving time. He proposed a property tax package that has many popular features. He also has advanced various ideas, some good, and some less good that went nowhere. Now our governor has come forth with the most positive and important initiative of his administration: awards for academic excellence. As Daniels…
Save the date: March 27. That’s when the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the latest data on Indiana’s economy. At that time, we’ll get the first estimate of personal income for the last three months of 2007, plus revisions of previous quarters. If there is a recession, that’s where we will see the first clear indications. If? Yes, it is still not clear if there is a recession because the data, our photos of economic performance, are not…
