Few matters in life are clear and definitive. Sadly, we grow up learning that all can
or should be reduced (or elevated) to mathematical modeling. We have no courses or TV channels specializing in ambiguity,
no college major in uncertainty.
Unemployment numbers come out monthly and the news media cover them as diligently as
violations of selected commandments.
The experience of the Vera Bradley Outlet Sale proved again that American businesses can be successful if they offer products
consumers want.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has released personal-income data for each county in the nation. The Indianapolis area
did not fare well.
Privatization is a popular political parlor
game. Instead of providing thoughtful reasoning for consideration by an informed electorate, officials try to meet public
needs through artfulness.
This month, as you watched the gallant Butler University basketball team uphold the honor of the Hoosier state, did you wonder
about the compensation of college coaches and their future NBA stars?
A serial entrepreneur often thrives on getting a business going, making it a success, then selling it off by
taking the firm public, or selling it to private investors or to another firm. The business owner, by contrast, often remains in the same
place, doing the same thing year after year.
Both the Indiana and U.S. income growth rates
are extremely small and each rounds off to a measly 0.6 percent. To be somewhat healthier than your sickly neighbors does
not mean that you are well.
The dimmer wits in the Indiana General Assembly want to compensate colleges and universities according to their graduation
rates. This is another example of shallow reasoning by our elected representatives reflecting erroneous thought that has permeated
our society.
A job is the
foundation of self-esteem, the linchpin for connecting to the community, the instrument by and through which the individual
connects with the greater international marketplace and derives the income that provides security for the family.
I am a probably [columnist Morton Marcus’] biggest fan in Indiana whom you never have met.
“Too little, too late” is the standard objection to the economic stimulus program now in effect. That criticism
is based on opinion, not fact. It will take several years to know whether the stimulus (or stimuli, because there was more
than a single stimulus) worked.
Gamblers wagered nearly $30 billion in 13 Indiana
casinos last year. Now, fellow taxpayers, if I understand these numbers, 91 percent of these dollars were returned as winnings and an additional $876 million (3 percent) went to our state and local
governments for our benefit.
rom Madison to Merrillville and Elkhart to Evansville, the talk among businesspeople is positive. Customers are showing
more interest, orders are picking up. The data may not be there to support the good cheer, but economic data are always delayed.
Mass transit plans are doomed to be ignored because no local government, and certainly
not the Indiana General Assembly, is interested in transportation.
The essential issue is to get out of the cycle where governments plan to spend money they don’t know they
will receive.
A State of the State address is supposed to make us feel better about who we are, where we are and where we are going.
The federal stimulus programs are based largely on borrowing, not on taxation.
The time is coming when everyone will recognize that, as every structure in a city is entitled fire department services, so,
too, each individual should receive appropriate health care, whether or not he or she can pay for it.
Maybe Elkhart County needs to ask itself if there is long-term economic value
in being the RV or even the electric-vehicle capital of the nation.
