HICKS: Upcoming election to influence corporate tax cuts
Obama’s plan is to eliminate loopholes for energy companies and create new ones for manufacturing firms. The condition of the 2012 electoral map should make his motivations clear.
Economic Analysis
Articles
HICKS: Imperfect markets influence economic growth
Markets rule supreme, but they also work imperfectly and will do so as long as humans themselves remain imperfect.
HICKS: It’s time for labor unions to make some changes
How is it, I wonder, that an employment contract between willing parties could get to the point where either side is viewed as an enemy?
HICKS: Field research sheds light on Super Bowl impact
My two sons and I headed to Indianapolis’ Super Bowl Village recently for some field research.
HICKS: State of the Union chock full of wistful visions
The bacchanalia of the stimulus has limited spending choices far into the future. So, most of the policies outlined by President Obama are wistful visions of a future that cannot be.
HICKS: Measuring intangibles part of economist’s job
A frequently heard criticism of economic analysis is that it focuses only on those things that can be easily measured. This is an astonishing and vacuous censure championed largely by the innumerate among us.
HICKS: What to expect from right-to-work legislation
It would be a long way from simply naïve to suppose that my study would alter any decisions about the divisive right-to-work legislation pending in Indiana.
HICKS: Job prospects should factor into student loans
College education is expensive (mostly due to foregone earnings), but in terms of expenses, paying tuition for state schools is far less than half the cost of going to college.
HICKS: Predictions can be wrong, but analysis valuable
The new year is a time of reflection. For someone who comments on the economy and provides analysis and forecasts, it should be a time to take stock and be honest about where I was right and wrong.
HICKS: An open letter to an elf from an economist
Last year, you brought me coal; this year, could you fill my pickup truck with gasoline instead?
HICKS: Is U.S. economy example of capitalism or free market?
For some time, I have been unhappy with using the term “capitalism” to describe the ascendant form of economic organization. I prefer “free market” to describe the workings of the United States and much of the world.
HICKS: Monetary policy for our times may involve trade-offs
This week, Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and leading contender to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman, visited Muncie to give an important speech on moving the economy past the recession.
HICKS: Black Friday feeds commercialization illusion
Thanksgiving evening into the wee hours of Black Friday saw me visiting three Walmart stores in five hours. This was purely research, mind you.
HICKS: National debt makes long-term challenges clear
We must have a serious discussion over the size and scope of government and how to pay for it. Economically, the answers are clear. We must cut spending, raise revenue and adjust Social Security to the demographic reality.
HICKS: Penn State abuse case offers lessons for us all
The cascading revelations about Pennsylvania State University’s storied football program surely will continue to repulse and sadden us. But within the horror of the events are many lessons, economic and otherwise.
HICKS: Schools, taxes, services on voters’ radar
It is easy to make promises while campaigning—and quite another thing to carry them out when confronted with the fullness of fact.
HICKS: Schools and leadership keys to community growth
Fixing schools, paving roads, building sidewalks, sprucing up parks and cutting government waste are hard, long, inelegant and thankless tasks—but they are the ones that really matter.
HICKS: Lessons in macabre taxes and ghastly fiscal policy
Halloween is the time when the Hicks kids learn about taxes. As a loving father, I combine the safety examination of their treats with a lesson on the effect of marginal tax rates on productivity.
Strategist: Uncertainty still holding back U.S. economy
In order to get the U.S. economy to grow at a respectable 3-percent annual rate, the government needs to get a grip on the debt crisis while corporations needs to start spending the money they've stockpiled.
HICKS: Human capital, income inequality and our future
Since at least the 1960s, economists have been warning that the link between human capital and economic growth was growing.