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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: What we can learn from our kids’ summer activities

Summer is at its midpoint, and with it comes the end of youth baseball, scout camp and a seemingly endless string of swim meets for the Hicks household. Like many of you out there, I welcome a few more quiet evenings at home. But during those long third-inning stretches and sleepless evenings in a tent, I spent some time calculating how much we value these youth sports and activities. You might be surprised what this math tells us about ourselves….

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Is Bloomington anti-business?

Bloomington has a reputation as one of the toughest places in the state to do business.

Its regulations are thickets, its bureaucrats nit-pickers, its public officials aloof. At least thatâ??s how
many businesspeople view the city.

The latest controversy pits…

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Commentary: Two worlds, one language

Do you speak Chinese? I don’t, but I had a great conversation with two non-English-speaking Chinese artists and educators last week. I was moderating a roundtable discussion at the governor’s residence for Joyce Sommers and the Indianapolis Arts Center. The roundtable kicked off a two-month summer exhibit at the center called “Two Worlds, One Language through Art.” (You can read more about the exhibit on page 37.) It was my first time as a moderator in a situation requiring the…

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IU program aims to turn lab rats into leaders: Business training is tailor-made for scientists

Andrea Walker is a chemist with management aspirations. But instead of signing up for a traditional MBA program, the team manager at Indianapolis-based AIT Laboratories will enroll this year in a slimmed-down business program that focuses on the life sciences. The program, called the Kelley Executive Certificate in the Business of Life Sciences, is a new creation of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. The program will conduct most of its classes online over a one-year period. The courses will…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Social-responsibility movement has a dark side

Identifying corporate villainy is a delightful pastime that virtually all of us have reveled in at some point or another. There are only two problems with this form of entertainment. A description of the first comes simply stated to us from the Gospel of John as “he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The second problem is a general lack of intellectual rigor in the debate. The heavily funded attacks on corporate America come primarily from organizations with…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Recollections of a departed friend

“I heard the news,” Sorethroat says. “It’s a shame and a surprise. Funny how you think there’s always time and then there isn’t. I talked with him just a week ago and we discussed plans to have lunch.” “Same here,” I say. Sorethroat, my inside informant at state government, and I are on the steps of the Capitol. We’re reflecting on the life and death of Chuck Coffey, a good man and a good friend. “He worked in this building…

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Base closings and health care

Weâ??ve reached the season when companies start lining up employee health care coverage for the following year.

Like prior years, companies will complain about skyrocketing costs and workers will complain about getting
fewer benefits. Study after study suggests both parties will…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Mike Hicks: What it takes to make our health care system healthy

The U.S. health care policy debate has been strangely quiet the past few months. But the underlying problems grow ever more serious. Here’s some background. First, health care costs are rising rapidly. A huge amount of the increase stems from greater demand for the most costly services. These services include advanced end-of-life care, much more extensive neonatal care, and high-end elective surgery. Higher use of these services represents perhaps the largest single contributor to overall health care costs. Second, we…

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EYE ON THE PIE: It’s not just the economy, stupid

No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…

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INVESTING: Why Anheuser-Busch bid resonates in Indianapolis

One of our sister Midwestern cities is locked in a fight for its corporate identity. A n h e u s e r- B u s c h , maker and distributor of Budweiser brand beers-and the corporate icon of St. Louis-is engaged in a $46.3 billion takeover battle for its survival as a U.S.-based company. The would-be acquirer is Belgium-based InBev, the second-largest brewer by volume in the world. London-based SABMiller, who in 2002 bought Miller Brewing in Milwaukee,…

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THE TRAVELING LIFE: Visiting Katmandu, Nepal: The unrest of the story

Upon arrival in Katmandu, Nepal, we learned from our tour guide that the American Information Agency was bombed the day before, causing the peace corps representatives to be evacuated, along with the families of all U.S. Embassy staff. Maoist terrorists abducted 700 students and boycotted the city, closing down a dozen industries with a strike, killings and riots. The King dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. The royal massacre of the then King and…

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Plea deal raises questions about ice firm’s local clout BEHIND THE NEWS:

Plea deal raises questions about ice firm’s local clout BEHIND THE NEWS Home City Ice Co. has a stranglehold on the Indianapolis-area ice market. Good for the company, you say? Not if the Cincinnati-based ice powerhouse avoided competition through old-fashioned, monopolistic shenanigans. Whether Home City did is a reasonable question to ask in light of the June 17 announcement that the company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to suppress and eliminate competition in the Detroit and southeast Michigan ice markets….

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Expert: 75 mph might be safe

A Purdue University civil engineering professor made news this week by rolling out a study showing the new
70 mph speed limit on rural interstates in Indiana caused virtually no increase in fatalities or injuries.

The study was prompted by the…

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Biotech database gives G&S high hopes: Firm sees more demand for grant-award research

By conducting market research for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, locally based G&S Research Inc. has grown into a $10 million firm. But founders have even higher expectations for their G&S Discovery division, which was formed two years ago. Its flagship product, Navigrant, provides a database of government grant awards for national biomedical research. The total market worldwide for life sciences research is estimated at $45 billion. Navigrant has compiled information on 450,000 awards from 60…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Why economists focus on increasing the size of the pie

I recently was invited to attend a t ow n – h a l l – s t y l e debate between members of a local fire department and an a n t i – p r o p e r t y – t a x group. For those of you who are sporadic readers of this column, it is important for me to clarify that I have recently angered both groups. It seems my research on government…

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Farm and suburban polluters

Drive through areas hit by the deluge of rain in the past few days and youâ??ll see mind-boggling soil
erosion.

At the base of myriad fields lie deltas of sediment washed downhill from elsewhere in their respective watersheds.
Not only was…

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Flagship rises over post-GM town: Incubator has helped preserve automotive talent base, foster diverse businesses

ANDERSON – Along Interstate 69, in a new industrial building with side-windows covered in paper to foil prying eyes, Altair Nanotechnologies is perfecting a ceramic oxide battery with three times the power of a conventional lithium battery. Up the road, Comfort Motion Technologies has written software to make a car’s power seat jiggle ever so subtly, to keep one’s back, butt and thighs comfortable on long drives. And everybody is keeping an eye on Pete Bitar, whose green laser device…

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Commentary: Listen, learn at summer camp

The war in Iraq is intolerable and interminable. We are struggling with a recession, a flawed energy policy, a weak dollar and an enormous government deficit. President Bush has earned a lower approval rating than Cinderella’s stepmother-and I’m sitting here thinking, “What if the election of 2000 had gone the other way?” Join me and pose that question to Ron Klain at the men’s edition of Mickey’s Camp this summer. Klain is arguably one of the most well-known national Democrats…

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Depending on a three-legged stool

Economic development experts have long contended that business investment and good jobs gravitate to places
where business, government and higher education are on the ball and get along together.

If one of the three legs doesnâ??t carry its weight, the other…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Home cooking not always good for us

The conversation between my neighbors, Paula and Paul Plain, interrupts the enjoyment I get from sitting on the deck in the dark of the night. They generally agree on whatever subject they discuss, but their voices nonetheless displace nature’s quiet. Thus, I find myself an unwilling participant in their nocturnal conversations. Last week, they were discussing the idea that young adult Hoosiers should be encouraged to remain in Indiana. “I’m so glad,” Paula crooned, “that 80 percent of central Indiana’s…

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