The price of anything depends on both supply and demand. A recent national report on child care noted that the cost of such care in Minnesota is high relative to incomes. The report received a lot of local press. Most…
Biofuels are no cure-all for energy needs
When discussing economic policies it is important to not let rhetoric overpower reality. That happened in a recent, much-reprinted New York Times article that argued “endless fields of corn in the Midwest can be distilled into endless gallons of ethanol…
Forget about trade “deficit”
We would be better off if the government simply stopped releasing trade-balance information. These monthly numbers are so widely misinterpreted that society is harmed rather than helped by the exercise. There are no better examples than last Friday’s release of…
Housing’s slow cool-down eases pain
As obvious as this sounds, moderate change over time is usually less painful than sudden dramatic shifts. This was true when I played with balloons as a child. If the balloon popped in the first hour, I was devastated. If…