Among economists of all stripes, it is well understood that international trade increases wealth, reduces poverty and generally makes everyone better off in the long run. The only real question is whether the total economic benefits are immediately realized or take just a few years to mature.
A recent study by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, sheds a great deal of light on the sausage mill of policy research, and the courage and integrity of the process of policy research altogether.
At the beginning of the Great Recession, in December 2007, there were more than 26 full-time workers for each part-time employee looking for full-time work. By June 2009, that number had shrunk to less than 15 full-time workers for each part-timer. There it has remained.
Brain drain is a genuine problem in Indiana. But instead of slowing this trend, our higher education financing policies accelerate this problem by pushing more students into majors that are in demand elsewhere.
Indiana enjoys what economists call a “structural surplus” in state tax revenue. This means the several-hundred-million-dollar surplus is a permanent affair when viewed against current expenditures. It would be astonishing if this did not lead to calls for a tax cut, and so it has.
Along with the sadness and anger that accompanies the Boston bomb explosions should come the realization that this could well be our lot for decades to come. We should expect and prepare for the worst.
A most remarkable book, “Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World,”, says all the explanations of the explosion of economic growth that occurred about 300 years ago are inadequate.
Perhaps difficult economic times unleash the power of long-discredited ideas into general circulation, because three bad intellectual influences merit noting—one from the political right, one bipartisan folly and one from the left.
A public fight has emerged among economists over the past few weeks, which likely spells major policy changes over the coming years.
The 10th anniversary of the start of the second Iraq war is an opportunity to reflect upon the economics of the conflict.
Most government statistics are preliminary releases, intended to be revised, so they provide a poor picture even to someone with clear context on their meaning.
The dramatic reintroduction of payroll taxes makes this year’s tax increase most injurious to the working poor and the lower-to-middle-income families.
I am often asked some version of the question, “Can we really survive becoming a service economy—won’t our loss of manufacturing jobs spell doom for our country?” The answer is, “No.”
Hidden within the unserious politics of the minimum-wage debate lies an important discussion of why many workers have not seen their wages grow over the past generation. It simply takes some digging.
As the president noted, no one should doubt that raising a family while earning minimum wage is a hard business; perhaps that is why almost nobody does it.
The stock market highs over the past few months have many folks confused.
Sometimes the worst part of the economic forecasting I do is the sinking feeling that my predictions will be right.
The United States has always had something like a middle class, but for most of our history it has been a distinction not necessarily dependent on income or wealth.
We appear to be headed for a government shutdown as our leaders in Washington, D.C., find themselves at an impasse on the largest question facing the nation: how to cut spending.
The Great Recession wasn’t caused by a housing market collapse; it was more than that. Our economic unwinding required lots of failures.
