BOHANON & CUROTT: Fed must stay independent, ignore Trump tirades
The officials in charge of setting the governments’ budget should not be the same officials in control of the printing press.
Economic Analysis
Articles
IU experts expect economy to maintain strong pace in 2019
The U.S. economy is expected to remain strong next year, with Indiana outperforming the nation, according to the annual Business Outlook forecast released Thursday by Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Trade pacts aren’t only about politics and producers
Journalists, commentators and economists routinely ignore consumers in trade discussions.
Cecil Bohanon & Nick Curott: Sears just didn’t keep up; others should take note
Sears got started doing exactly what Amazon is doing now: offering low prices and home delivery. But the larger point is this: In free markets, firms have to serve customers better than their rivals.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Don’t praise—or curse—Amazon for its pay decisions
Charitable instincts don’t dictate how much people make, the market does.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Event-market contracts better than polls at predicting winners
Most all the polls missed Donald Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. The slow death of land-line phones makes it easy for likely voters to evade pesky pollsters.
BOHANON & CUROTT: We’re about to feel pain of trade war with China
Watching recent developments in the U.S. trade war with China has been like watching a minor traffic accident escalate into a multi-car pileup.
BOHANON & CUROTT: High incarceration rates are drag on economy
In these divisive times, a surprising number of political players agree on one thing: America keeps too many people in prisons and jails.
Sen. Warren’s attack on billion-dollar companies is misguided
If for-profit firms are consistently mismanaged, eventually this reflects in subpar earnings. The investor’s escape hatch is selling one’s shares.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Earning, saving and sharing make you a Good Samaritan
The Good Samaritan was not a Social Justice Warrior. He responded to the immediate need of a suffering person. He showed loving kindness by his actions.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Indiana used good-government basics for ‘economic freedom’
Indiana combined lower taxes with frugality to revive a tired economy and nearly bankrupt government.
BOHANON & STYRING: Our robust growth isn’t sustainable without fundamental change
Is the current GDP growth the beginning of a new period of robust 20th-century-like growth? Or simply a one-time growth spurt that will revert to the anemic growth of recent decades?
BOHANON & CUROTT: Regulations rarely free of unintended consequences
Section 1502 of Dodd-Frank effectively stopped the flow of 3T minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and reduced warlords’ income. But the story has a dark side.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Democratic socialism would be costly to middle class
Self-proclaimed democratic socialists call for an expanded and more extensive system of government entitlements.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Aid to farmers reflects interventionist cycle
The government meddles in the free market, with tariffs, and this leads to a problem. This generates another government intervention, the bailout, to clean up the mess generated by the first meddling.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Raising the minimum wage is not black-and-white issue
Raising the minimum wage increases the cost of low-skilled labor. Inevitably, this reduces the amount of low-skilled labor employed.
BOHANON & STYRING: Today’s rising gas prices unlikely to stall economy
Gas prices are rising primarily due to the strengthening global economy. The United States is in the midst of a 10-year economic expansion, and the unemployment rate is the lowest since 1970.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Tariffs will hurt, but pain will not be felt this year
If President Trump’s import tariffs are as bad as economists say, why is the Trump economy so strong?
BOHANON & CUROTT: Debt is bigger U.S. threat than nation’s trade deficits
Many think that, if our debt even approaches 200 percent of GDP, our currency will lose its reserve status or our super-low interest rate will rise.
BOHANON & CUROTT: Incentives can backfire if carried to extremes
Part of economists’ useful function is to offer alternative ways of structuring incentives to attain socially desired ends.