BOHANON & STYRING: ‘Creative destruction’ blows a powerful gale
Innovation is capitalism. Only under capitalism does innovation flourish.
Economic Analysis
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STYRING & BOHANON: Don’t give in to politically correct busybodies
Hoosiers should be sensitive to outside criticism. But it is also possible to be oversensitive to outside criticism and to overreact. That can’t be good for our image.
BOHANON & STYRING: War on Poverty funds wasted in Baltimore, too
We’ve fought a 50-year War on Poverty with a cornucopia of public dollars. Poverty is winning.
BOHANON & STYRING: If the pols can’t kill this agency, is there hope?
We never thought we’d toss a bouquet to Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont and recently declared Democratic presidential candidate. But he has one thing right: The Export-Import Bank should be abolished.
BOHANON & STYRING: Upshots of Europe’s surreal negative rates
“Negative real interest rates are impossible.” That’s econ-speak for the simple idea that you have to be nuts to pay someone to borrow money from you. Styring would have to be smoking a controlled substance to lend Bohanon $100 on his promise to pay back $99.75 a year from now. He’s better off just stashing […]
BOHANON & STYRING: More money won’t improve public education
All of us want better schools for our kids. But beware of how to get there. More money isn’t the answer.
BOHANON & STYRING: Legislators eye own districts in school debate
One big hurdle remains before our legislators can leave by their April 29 deadline: the two-year state budget. As is so often the case, the main budget item up in the air is the school formula, the complex calculations that determine how much money each district receives from the state.
BOHANON & STYRING: Market incentives undermine discrimination
Economic actors are constantly bringing supply and demand into balance, although they are rarely aware of this. However, responding to market incentives tends to undermine discrimination.
BOHANON & STYRING: At least they can’t fudge the revenue forecast
One piece of legislation must pass before we can wave the General Assembly bye-bye: the budget.
BOHANON & STYRING: Beware politicians’ boasts about jobless rates
The widely publicized unemployment rate is one of those chameleon numbers, where apparent good is sometimes bad, and vice versa. All is not always what it seems when you peek behind the wizard’s curtain.
BOHANON & STYRING: Office bracketologists are probably safe. Still …
If you indulge in other forms of gambling from time to time, “bracketology” is the smartest bet you’ll ever make. And, you might become a criminal.
BOHANON & STYRING: Eleven’s political power play gets yellow card
What criteria is the public official supposed to use when she is forcing taxpayers to support a private venture? The government’s ability to support private enterprise is limited.
BOHANON & STYRING: Wage law distorts competitive markets
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.
BOHANON & STYRING: Communities lose more than they gain from TIFs
Tax increment financing is sold by supporters as the closest thing to a free lunch mankind ever invented. We differ.
BOHANON & STYRING: Economic laws will push gas prices back up
Demand for petroleum products has stagnated because the global economy slowed. Supply, primarily driven by U.S. shale oil, has soared.
HICKS: New report starkly contrasts jobs polarization
Despite claims that the job market is unambiguously happy, there is real evidence of deepening problems.
HICKS: Today’s mobile workforce flocks to ‘great places’
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.
HICKS: Piecemeal dismantling of liquor laws a bad idea
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.
HICKS: Bill for Rockport gasification plant is job killer
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.
HICKS: Minimum wage arguments make little sense
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.