BOHANON & STYRING: Let’s be real in debate over tougher CO2 rules
We offer one simple economic observation: Reductions in CO2 emissions come at an economic cost today, while the benefits accrue in the future.
Economic Analysis
Articles
BOHANON & STYRING: Social Security funding crisis is already here
The most recent Report of the Social Security Administration projects that, in 2020, interest earnings will not be enough to cover Social Security’s deficit, so the Social Security Trust Fund’s balance will begin to decline. It is expected the balance will be zero sometime in 2034.
BOHANON & STYRING: Raising minimum wage takes employment toll
Fans of goosing the minimum wage should acknowledge that raising the price of labor by legislative fiat costs jobs.
BOHANON & STYRING: Don’t blow the surplus on ‘worthy causes’
The reserve balances are there for one reason: to cushion against unforeseen shocks that would cause dramatic reductions in public services or tax increases nobody really wants.
BOHANON & STYRING: Bureaucrats still manipulate China’s economy
China is a mosaic of different “economies”—part subsistence agriculture, part controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, and only part more or less “capitalistic”. The State still calls far too many of the shots.
BOHANON & STYRING: Expect additional acts in Greek debt drama
In recent days, the tug of war between economic interest and other human passions have played out in the dance between Greece and its eurozone creditors.
BOHANON & STYRING: Why leaving the eurozone would help Greece
Many economists who differ over whom to blame for Greece’s financial disaster agree in thinking it is a good idea for the Greeks to leave the euro and go back to using the Greek drachma. A good idea for both Greece and the future of the eurozone.
BOHANON & STYRING: Overlooked high-court ruling deals blow to cartel
The only cartels that persist for any length of time are those propped up by government sanction. Horne v. U.S. Department of Agriculture perfectly illustrates our point.
BOHANON & STYRING: There’s no honor in propping up dying industries
As Milton Friedman once observed, if all you want is a “jobs” program, might as well hire people to dig ditches and fill them up again … with spoons.
BOHANON & STYRING: A sound economic alternative to Obamacare
At stake is whether people in the 36 states where the federal government runs the Obamacare health insurance exchanges are entitled to receive health insurance subsidies.
BOHANON & STYRING: OPEC is merely the latest cartel doing itself in
Why should we be surprised when another cartel bites the dust?
Economists: Second quarter to be worse than expected
U.S. economic growth in the second quarter is predicted to be far weaker than previously expected and it will prevent the pace of annual growth from exceeding last year's 2.4 percent, according to a forecast by a group of U.S. business economists.
BOHANON & STYRING: Why ‘free trade’ is almost always a good thing
At least since the time of Adam Smith, economists have recognized that specialization and trade are the keys to prosperity. And at least since that time, economists have had a hard time explaining why this is true.
BOHANON & STYRING: ‘Creative destruction’ blows a powerful gale
Innovation is capitalism. Only under capitalism does innovation flourish.
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.