The temptation to abuse pension funds is nothing new. In cartoonist Garry Trudeau’s collection titled “But the Pension Fund Was Just Sitting There!” con man Duke uses pension money to hire a football star. Jimmy Hoffa allegedly looted Teamsters union…
Don’t judge tax-refund loans too quickly
Making large extrapolations from small bases can be dangerous. Case in point: I recently bought steel at the rate of $1,700 a ton for one of my projects. A few days later, I bought more steel from a different vendor,…
Liquor-law reports sobering
A recent report by the Legislative Auditor’s Office makes clear that Minnesotans pay more for booze than necessary. It is not clear that this is bad for society as a whole, but it does raise the questions of who benefits…
Jury is out on telecom consolidation
We have come full circle in telecommunications. A half-century ago, a monolithic Bell system dominated U.S. telephone service. Antitrust rulings in the 1980s and new technology demolished that monopoly. After many years of apparently freewheeling competition in telephony — and…