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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: State’s growth in incomes is still lagging the nation’s

April 23, 2007

It was 1980 when then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked audiences whether they were better off than four years earlier. It was smart politics-1980 was a recession year. But politics aside, it’s always a relevant question. For if the economy is not growing the pie that we all share, then those who manage it, not to mention those in political leadership roles, have cause for concern. But how do we answer such a question? With the due date for tax filings…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Does growth in health care drive our state’s economy?

April 30, 2007

Indiana households, businesses and governments spent more than $33 billion on health care products and services in 2004. We don’t have current data yet, but you can be sure the amount is higher today. That’s because growth in health care expenditures in the state has averaged a whopping 8.6 percent per year since 1980. In 2004, spending on hospital care, physician services, prescription drugs, nursing homes, and every other kind of health care product or service gobbled up 14.4 percent…

EYE ON THE PIE: Bullying behavior beyond the playground

April 30, 2007

Bully: “a blustering browbeating person; especially: one habitually cruel to others who are weaker” (Merriam-Webster’s On-line Dictionary). I don’t want to overstate the case, but much of the news lately has been about bullies. Without any psychological qualifications, I see bullies as those who view themselves as weak persons or victims of abuse. They then use intimidation or violence to compensate for the injustice and indignity they perceive being imposed on them. The Virginia Tech massacre appears to have been…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Signs of economic trouble are beginning to surface

May 7, 2007

There is a character in an old Hunter S. Thompson novel who shows up in every scene sweating profusely. Halfway through the book, he finally explains it-sweating is normal. It’s when he stops sweating that the alarm bells should sound. It’s a little like that with bankers. Except it’s not literally sweat, but worry. Bankers are always worried-about loan quality, interestrate spreads, renewed inflation, you name it. After all, the banking business is really business in general. How we collectively…

EYE ON THE PIE: Earnings per job up, but not all is well

May 7, 2007

Economic development is all about gaining jobs and increasing earnings per job. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) just released county level earnings and employment data for 2005. “Who cares?” you say. “You should,” I say. “These are the most comprehensive reports for more than 3,000 U.S. counties. They help explain how county economies are performing and the dynamics of change.” “But they’re old data,” you say. “First, 2005 has to end before we can have data for the…

MICKEY MAURER Commentary: The classy dame is still classy

May 7, 2007

“Pat Miller is a classy dame.” Michael S. Maurer, Indianapolis Star, Dec. 13, 2005 The above response to an Indianapolis Star reporter on the occasion of Pat Miller’s resignation as secretary of commerce was meant with all sincerity to be complimentary but was morphed by Indianapolis Star columnist John Ketzenberger into a slur on the order of Don Imus or Howard Stern. The Star piled on with a letter to the editor from someone who does not even live in…

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: A word to the generally assembled

May 14, 2007

Like everyone else who’s interested in these sorts of things, I have my opinions about the recently completed 2007 session of the Indiana General Assembly. Considering how long it took lawmakers to get on track, they accomplished some reasonably important business when it got down to the wire. Aside from the all-important balanced budget, tops on my list is the 44-cent increase in the cigarette tax. It should’ve been higher, but this will do for a start. For all you…

NOTIONS: Hoosier college presidents teach a liberal arts lesson

May 14, 2007

Last Monday morning, my work took me to West Lafayette. When I learned that Purdue University would name a new president that afternoon, I decided to stick around for the festivities. Hundreds of people gathered in the Loeb Playhouse for the one-agenda-item trustees’ meeting. The vote was unanimous. The introductory speech outlined an “out-of-this-world” resume. And out from behind the curtain emerged 59-year-old France CÃ³rdova: astrophysicist, university administrator, creative writer-someone Purdue board chair J. Timothy McGinley called “truly a Renaissance…

EYE ON THE PIE: Can Big 10 show us more than sports?

May 14, 2007

There is an issue of greater importance than gay marriage, abortion or the tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan. State regulation of interior designers is a matter of such public concern that the Indiana Senate supported it by a vote of 44-5 and the House, 62-34. Then, when we finally had the public protected from the inappropriate placement of sofas, the governor goes and vetoes the bill. Mitch, the spoilsport. Well, there is always next year. The governor could not stop…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Employers hope to save by promoting healthy living

May 14, 2007

“Mandates are a form of love,” a state legislator once said, explaining a vote that added requirements to privately funded health insurance programs statewide. And our governments evidently love all of us-businesses, individuals, and even other governments-very much. Our legislatures tell us the lowest wage we can pay our workers, the questions we can and cannot ask during job interviews, and how many gallons of water we use to flush our toilets. To the admittedly narrow-minded thinking of an economist,…

Commentary: A plea for bio-focused policies:

May 14, 2007

Commentary A plea for bio-focused policies On April 2, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act and can be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. While the ruling acknowledges the obvious, it offers a compelling rationale for Indiana elected officials to create an economic development strategy that leverages Hoosier intellectual capital and one of the state’s greatest assets, our farmland. With the scope of the twin challenges…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Wireless world making research more difficult

May 21, 2007

If you’re thinking of getting a job as a researcher, you should know it is a lonely life we lead. The world outside our offices sees issues in black and white that appear to us as infinite shades of gray. And when we occasionally emerge from our cubicles to deliver our results to the public, we are told either that we have a stranglehold on the obvious or that we have no concept of the real world. But the world…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Scoring political points can cost state in long run

May 28, 2007

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about economic cycles-the boombust patterns of everything from housing to commodity prices-is that they keep economists and forecasters gainfully employed. John D. Rockefeller tried to eliminate them by controlling production and distribution. Franklin Roosevelt tried to cut them short by using the federal government checkbook. And Alan Greenspan, and now Ben Bernanke, keep trying to talk and cajole financial markets in the direction they think they should go. It hasn’t worked. Or,…

EYE ON THE PIE: Commuting boosts earnings for Hoosiers

June 4, 2007

I was delighted to receive a new disc from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis containing the latest annual data on economic conditions in every county in the nation. Now I have a more detailed picture of how our state functions and is changing. For example, the daily flows of commuters between counties within and outside Indiana are essential to our economic health. By commuting, Hoosier workers find better jobs and firms get the best workers. Commuting is easier when…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Taking the ultimate step in K-12 accountability

June 4, 2007

Everyone in business today knows that customers have choices, and that making and keeping customers happy with your product has always been a big part of the game. These days dissatisfied customers have many more options than simply walking away-they can go online and blast your product in cyberspace, attacking the image and reputation you may have spent a lifetime trying to build. That’s the daunting prospect American businesses face every day. Yet as difficult as that sounds, here’s one…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Focusing on factory jobs misses the big picture

June 11, 2007

There’s been something peculiar going on in the business media in Indiana over the last few weeks. We’ve been beating ourselves up because the state is losing manufacturing jobs. Headlines about the decline are popping up, and state and local development officials are facing the bright light of media scrutiny. The chatter on Internet “talk-back” forums serves up plenty of people to blame-the governor, the unions, the Chinese and even our neighbors who buy imported goods. But if I could…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Will state’s job growth always trail nation’s?

June 18, 2007

You usually have to swallow your pride when it comes time to forecast the growth of the Indiana economy. That’s because no matter what your heart says, your head tells you what the best forecast will be. That is the one that pulls up well short of growth in the rest of the country. There are a lot of talented people working hard around the state trying to change that. And if the full truth be told, most of our…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: What’s your favorite economic indicator?

June 25, 2007

If you like to hear news about the economy, the information age has been a boon. Leave your television set on one of the financial networks, and you’ll see tickers, graphs and animations whizzing by as talking heads digest and dissect every morsel of market and economic information. Tell your computer to alert you to any news about a company, a country or an industry and it will pop up with tidbits all day long. And for a few bucks,…

HUMAN RESOURCES: If you hire in a hurry, you may feel bad for a long time

June 25, 2007

Of all the components of finding and hiring the right employees, employers consider interviewing job candidates the most difficult. If not done well, interviews can lead an employer to make the wrong decision. Why? Because job candidates rehearse their answers to the traditional interview questions, telling the employers what they want to hear. However, if employers ask behavioral based questions, job candidates can’t manipulate their answers as easily. Perhaps a scenario-a composite taken from typical real-life episodes-will illustrate the difference…

BREAKING: Purdue launches Indianapolis tech park

June 28, 2007

Purdue Research Foundation has purchased a half-interest in 78 acres in AmeriPlex industrial park on the far west side to start a technology park that the university anticipates filling with as many as 75 businesses and 1,500 jobs. The announcement is expected during a 1 p.m. news conference at the site. AmeriPlex is south of […]

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Articles

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: State’s growth in incomes is still lagging the nation’s

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Does growth in health care drive our state’s economy?

EYE ON THE PIE: Bullying behavior beyond the playground

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Signs of economic trouble are beginning to surface

EYE ON THE PIE: Earnings per job up, but not all is well

MICKEY MAURER Commentary: The classy dame is still classy

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: A word to the generally assembled

NOTIONS: Hoosier college presidents teach a liberal arts lesson

EYE ON THE PIE: Can Big 10 show us more than sports?

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Employers hope to save by promoting healthy living

Commentary: A plea for bio-focused policies:

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Wireless world making research more difficult

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Scoring political points can cost state in long run

EYE ON THE PIE: Commuting boosts earnings for Hoosiers

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Taking the ultimate step in K-12 accountability

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Focusing on factory jobs misses the big picture

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Will state’s job growth always trail nation’s?

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: What’s your favorite economic indicator?

HUMAN RESOURCES: If you hire in a hurry, you may feel bad for a long time

BREAKING: Purdue launches Indianapolis tech park