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Morton Marcus

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EYE ON THE PIE: News flash? Indiana continues to lag nation

The U.S. Department of Commerce put two data sets under my tree the week before Christma. On Wednesday, I got personal-income data, by state, for the third quarter of 2006 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. On Friday, the Bureau of the Census sent me 2006 population estimates for all the states. Could I ask for anything better unless it was the “Complete Works of Alvin and the Chipmunks”? However, my joy may not be shared by those who have…

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EYE ON THE PIE: It is time to accept I-69 and move on

I don’t want to write this column; you don’t want to read it. Yet, I must respond to the diehards who insist that building Interstate 69 (and almost any other road) will be detrimental to our state. Several economic and environmental studies support the Bloomington-Crane-Washington-Petersburg route to Evansville. Yet, time after time, supporters of the Terre Haute-Sullivan-Vincennes-Princeton route rise up and demand a reconsideration of the path. The Terre Haute crowd is afraid it will lose something if the Bloomington…

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EYE ON THE PIE: A private eye looks at privatization

I was sitting with my back to the door, watching the deer consume urban gardens, when she entered. “Mr. Marcus?” she asked, in a voice that suggested the lower range of a clarinet. “Yes,” I replied, swiveling in my swivel chair. “You don’t know me,” she said. “My name is Arlene Amour.” “I can understand that,” I said, examining her with my eyes as would an eagle swirling over his prey. I liked what I saw. “I want you to…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Time for progressive Indiana income tax?

There is growing agreement that the rich are getting richer faster than the poor are improving their lives. If you believe the trickle-down theorists, the poor will get the runoff as wealth is showered upon the few. If you look about, however, you will question this charming opinion held by the comfortable. At the same time, policies at the national and state levels continue to emphasize cutting the most important means we have of correcting this growing imbalance in America….

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EYE ON THE PIE: ‘Tis the season for economic foolishness

This is the best time of the year. Thanksgiving is over and the signs of Christmas have yet to bore us. All the truly crazy people have identified themselves by shopping on the days immediately following Thanksgiving. New and old ideas are blossoming for consideration by the Indiana General Assembly. Gov. Mitch Daniels has given us the Commerce Connector, a nifty addition to our highway road map. This would be a new outer loop around Indianapolis, serving Greenfield, Shelbyville, Franklin…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Indiana: a primer for the Legislature

The General Assembly is organizing itself. This is more difficult than getting fleas to join a union. But I am being disrespectful. My purpose this week is benign. I present for the consideration of our 150 legislators certain facts about Indiana and where it ranks nationally. The data are from the 2005 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. First, let’s consider sex. Of the 6.1 million Hoosiers, 50.9 percent are females, which leaves 49.1 percent…

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EYE ON THE PIE: How much do property rights matter?

Rep. Roberta Righteous won reelection to the Indiana House again this year without opposition. We met for coffee and cinnamon rolls at a quiet spot near the Statehouse. “What’s going to be this year’s hot topic in the Legislature?” I asked. “Not prayer,” she said. “Not abortion, not education, not even jobs. The issue will be protecting property rights.” “Are property rights being threatened?” I asked, licking the frosting from my fingers. “No more than usual,” she responded with a…

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EYE ON THE PIE: We all could use a dose of civility

Whenever life seems too gloomy to endure, there is relief to be found in the antics of the Bloomington City Council. That body of jokesters recently voted to permit households within the city limits to keep up to five chickens. These chickens will help supply fresh eggs, thereby reducing the community’s dependency on unnatural food sources. (No, dear reader, I did not make this up.) We will not claim the City Council of Bloomington is sexist because it permits egg-laying…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Who is watching Hoosier journalism?

I recently attended a lecture on renal problems of penal populations. The study of kidney disease among prisoners has been a fascination of mine since I started watching James Cagney movies. The next day, I thought I would break out in liver spots when I read the newspaper account. The central points of the lecture were missed as the reporter bore down on other interesting, but tangential, issues. No doubt some of prisoners’ kidney problems are the result of specific…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Property taxes: Indiana’s soap opera

Hoosier propertytax laws are so bad, they should be totally revised, but not discarded. As it stands, there is little economic sense in how those laws are written or applied. We have homeowners ranked against renters, plus residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural interests are in perpetual conflict. The only beneficiaries of this ceaseless conflict are the party automatons in the General Assembly. Let’s consider the simplest case. Mr. Gold lives in a house with an assessed value of $150,000. Mr….

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EYE ON THE PIE: Let’s ditch revenue forecasting

“This humidity is the worst part of living in a Hoosier forest. I can’t take off more clothes and maintain an appropriate degree of decency. Even then, this soggy air still would be oppressive.” Faye of the Forest was perched on my deck railing complaining about the weather. I just endured, puffing a cigar as if I were Sydney Greenstreet in one of those 1940s movies set in the jungle. All I was missing was the white suit. “So,” she…

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EYE ON THE PIE: If you make a mistake, then ‘fess up to it

I spoke at a meeting last week on the prospective impact of Honda in Greensburg on the Columbus economy. Several speakers had preceded me and I did not know what they had said, since I arrived an hour late. Naturally, I apologized for my tardiness. Punctuality is a virtue in societies, like ours, that value efficiency above comfort. Then I proceeded, unwittingly, to make a fool of myself. I proclaimed, in my best stentorian manner, that the key factor for…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Yes, Virginia, there is an ‘Indiana economy’

“Is there really such a thing as the ‘Indiana economy’?” The question came from Ed Doric, a pillar of our community. We were at one of the many fests that provide camaraderie and calories during our humid Hoosier summers. The crowd moved us apart so I could not answer his inquiry. Let the following be accepted as my response. Yes, Ed, there is an Indiana economy. As certainly as there is a U.S. economy, as surely as you or I…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Novel ideas from Pat and Beurt

Pat Bauer is a longterm member of the Indiana House of Representatives from South Bend. A Democratic majority in the lower house will make him again the speaker of the House, one of the few powerful voices in the state’s governing structure. Some do not view Bauer as the progressive sort of leader the state needs today. Yet his ideas are based on an experienced and solid reading of public sentiment. Beurt SerVaas is retired from a productive career in…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Your eye-dentity is the key to our future

By my calculations, the U.S. population will reach 300 million on or about Oct. 15. There is no need to specify the hour and minute. The population clock at the U.S. Bureau of the Census indicates that we are adding to our numbers at a rate of nearly one person each 10 seconds. Even though our population growth rate has been declining, the absolute growth numbers, and their implications, remain staggering. For example, if we average two persons per housing…

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EYE ON THE PIE: The trouble with inexpensive housing

From 2000 to 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us, there were 148,500 housing units added in Indiana. That’s a 5.8-percent rate of growth (16th in the country), exceeding the national rate of 5.3 percent. During the same period, Indiana added 134,600 people, a 2.2-percent increase (33rd in the country) and just more than half the 4.1-percent national rate. For every person we added, we built 1.1 housing units, the 10th-highest rate in the nation. What’s going on? To get…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Too much manufacturing is not Indiana’s problem

We know that, relative to the United States, Indiana is neither a rich state nor one growing with vigor. Two weeks ago in this space, I discussed our more recent employment experiences. A friend read the column and asked, “How much of our lack of job growth is due to the slump or collapse in manufacturing jobs?” Nationally, only three states (Nevada, and the Dakotas) had any gain in manufacturing jobs between May 2001 and May 2006. Alaska and Wyoming…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Who needs economists, anyway?

Economists are not stupid people. They are timid and tend to hide their timidity behind a wall of overbearing self-confidence. But they are not stupid. In fact, often they are too smart to talk about what they do and do not know. As they wiggle over the rocks of uncertainty, they appear to others as either sneaky or formless. Let’s take interest rates as an example. Economists like to talk about how, if the Fed raises interest rates, home mortgage…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Where have Hoosier jobs gone?

“You’re that guy,” she said. “Yeah, I’m that guy,” I confirmed. “How’d ya like some numbers? You can do with them whatcha want,” she said with an intonation that made the opportunity sound pornographic. “I just picked them out of the trash right here at the Department of Workforce Development. They’re fresh and pretty clean.” “How much?” I asked. “Enough for lunch,” Dorothy replied. “Deal,” I said, and we made an exchange of paper money for data on paper. There…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Tattoos aren’t only things we hide

I admit I don’t understand the world in which I live. For example, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reports that 24 percent of Americans age 18 to 50 have one or more tattoos. That rises to 36 percent when we look at just those 18 to 29. I don’t get it. Is this body art, a message to the world, a commitment to oneself or someone else? Tattoos do fill in all that empty…

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