Things That Should Make Us Very Nervous
Nicole Gelinas at City Journal asks an excellent question, “Is it not daft to lend New York and California one more dime?” In the past two years tax revenues have plummeted. Overall state and local...
View ArticleHow Bell, California’s City Council Got Their Pay Raises
NPR reports that in the city of Bell, California three city administrators agreed to resign after residents expressed outrage over their salaries. City Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns...
View ArticleSaving Playgrounds and Amphitheaters
In the coming years expect more of these kinds of discussions in local government. Revenues are sluggish to modest. The recovery is weak. Spending growth in entitlements guarantees a future with...
View ArticleWhy Do Some Cities Grow and Others Not?
In 1980, Austin, Texas, and Syracuse, New York, were roughly the same size. The Austin metro area had a population of about 590,000, and the Syracuse metro area had about 643,000 residents. By 2007,...
View ArticleTennessee Valley Authority downgraded by S&P
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)’s bond rating has been downgraded from AAA to AA+, though, “the fundamental financial strength of the TVA is unchanged.” The TVA is a wholly-owned entity of the...
View ArticleEconomic Freedom In Decline
Today, the Fraser Institute released the 2011 version of the Economic Freedom of the World report. Authored by James Gwartney of Florida State University, Robert Lawson of Southern Methodist...
View ArticleGetting People Back to Work
Germany’s unemployment rate is only 6.2 percent today. This is pretty remarkable given the severity of the recent recession, the slow growth of Germany’s trade partners (including the U.S.) and the...
View ArticleMicrofinance for urban entrepreneurs
I’m at the Living Cities 20th Anniversary today, liveblogging on the discussions that panelists are having here. This post originally appeared at Next American City. Patrick McCarthey of the Annie E....
View ArticleLocal Governments in the United States
From an article in Stateline: There are 89,476 local governments in the United States. They include counties, cities, villages, towns and townships, as well as special districts that handle utilities,...
View ArticleThe USPS: A Business or a Welfare Organization?
In our oped in the Chicago Tribune yesterday, Maurice McTigue and I argue that Congress needs to decide if it wants the USPS to be an independent business or a taxpayer-supported welfare organization....
View ArticleTrust Me On This One
Think about how often you depend on the kindness trust of strangers. You can walk into a restaurant, order the most expensive item on the menu and leisurely eat it without offering up any sort of...
View ArticleProperty Rights and Coffee in El Salvador
In this week’s New Yorker, Kelefa Sanneh details the work of Aida Batlle, a Salvadoran entrepreneur. (Unfortunately only part of the article is available online, but the entire story is a great read)....
View ArticleEconomists Agree – Illegality Increases the Street Price of Drugs
The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business launched a website earlier this year titled The Initiative on Global Markets. The purpose of this website is to explore the extent to which...
View ArticleDown With One-Dimensional Politics!
Last Sunday, ABC’s This Week ran a new segment titled “The Great American Debates.” It featured George Will and Paul Ryan debating Barney Frank and Robert Reich on the question: “There is too much...
View ArticleNew Public Choice Papers
Last week I attended the annual Public Choice Societies conference in Miami, Florida. Among the most interesting papers were: “Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?” by Niclas Berggren and Therese...
View ArticleEconomic Freedom and Well-Being Across U.S. States
From new research by R. W. Hafer and Ariel Belasen, both of Southern Illinois University: There is ample evidence that well-being, measured in various ways, is positively related to economic freedom...
View ArticlePuerto Rico Secretary of State on Government Reform
On my last post about government reform in Puerto Rico, a commenter pointed out that some of the trends indicating that the territory’s government is shrinking have reversed in the past year. Indeed,...
View ArticleIf You Are Successful, Did You Do It On Your Own?
A lot of people are upset with the President’s remarks from last weekend. Here is what the President said: [L]ook, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on...
View ArticleThe Study of American Capitalism
(Note to readers: Three talks in three states over the last week have made me a terrible blogger. Thankfully, Eileen and Emily have stepped up where I have stepped down.) Mercatus has now organized its...
View ArticleEconomic Freedom and Economic Privilege
Last week, the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation released their annual Index of Economic Freedom by Terry Miller, Kim Holmes, and Edwin Feulner. I was delighted to contribute a chapter on...
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