House Enrolled Act 1019, a bill to repeal the wage, is what gives. Few Statehouse junkies thought it would be an issue this time around. But the bill has passed the House and stands a chance of becoming law.
Tax increment financing is sold by supporters as the closest thing to a free lunch mankind ever invented. We differ.
Demand for petroleum products has stagnated because the global economy slowed. Supply, primarily driven by U.S. shale oil, has soared.
Despite claims that the job market is unambiguously happy, there is real evidence of deepening problems.
Richard Florida’s writings popularized the notion of a “creative class” of workers, arguing that the workers held the key to a region’s prosperity and that the policies that attracted them would offer economic salvation.
The regulation of alcoholic beverages in Indiana contains a vast web of laws that apply differently to different types of businesses. Over the past 80 years, firms across Indiana have in good faith made investment and location decisions based upon these laws.
Rockport was not a privately feasible operation in 2005, so the state offered a number of energy purchase agreements to support its construction. Suffice it to say that what was a marginally bad idea in 2005 is a profoundly bad idea in 2015.
It is important to understand what is going on with the minimum wage, especially since a group of Hoosier lawmakers is proposing a 39-percent increase this year. I think both sides are talking past each other.
Wage stagnation has been a central element since the Great Recession.
Because of the gasoline-price drop, businesses might be more profitable and might be able to use the extra revenue to hire more workers or make other investments. If they pass their profits on to owners, this will mean more money for retirees and other stockholders.
Last December, I forecasted the state to see 57,000 new jobs through 2014, with a drop of the unemployment rate to the low- to mid-sixes. This would’ve been good news, but the reality was better.
Wages are set by something like auction markets. In these markets, the willingness to pay a certain wage is balanced by workers’ inclination to sell their services. Rare skills in high demand get paid more than common skills.
Wages are largely determined by labor markets. So, if the minimum wage is set above the market wage, some workers will lose jobs while some will be better paid. There is no disagreement by anyone with a modest understanding of the matter, but low-paid jobs are not the issue.
The sharp drop in crude oil prices has caught many economists by surprise, me included.
If everything goes as forecasted, 2015 will be the best year of economic performance since 2007. This is a low bar if ever there were one.
Jonathan Gruber’s micro-simulation economic model is highly sought after because it replicates the version used by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Thus, it can be used to outwit that organization’s candid assessment of the effects of a policy proposal.
If excessive government spending and artificially inflated wages offered actual help for America’s dwindling middle class, then east-central Indiana would’ve seen unbridled prosperity over the past half century instead of decline.
After Tuesday's midterm elections, exit polling showed how little falling unemployment has resonated. Most voters said they cast their ballots out of fear for the economy.
Given my strong support for early childhood education programs, you might suppose I think Gov. Pence mistaken in his decision to forgo some $85 million in federal support for early childhood education. I do not. Accepting this money would have been easy, popular and wrong.
Economists from Indiana University Kelley School of Business say they are cautiously optimistic that 2015 will be the strongest year the economy has seen yet in its long, slow recovery from the Great Recession.
