Is spending money on infrastructure always a good idea? Many apparently think so based on reaction last week to my criticism of spending $2.3 billion for new locks on the Mississippi River. A typical e-mail argued, Maintaining/upgrading our infrastructure is…
Import teaching tool
Among my tools are two versions of a little device called a “thumbwheel ratchet.” They illustrate, in microcosm, issues raised by international trade. While both do the same job, one costs seven times as much as the other. The two…
You can trade steel but not haircuts
While reading Brazilian newspapers on the Web last week, I noticed a curious coincidence. One morning, I read in U.S. periodicals that higher steel prices are pressuring U.S. manufacturers and that milk prices are rising. That evening, I read about…
Army Corps seems ready to barge in with costly overhaul of locks
This week’s announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it wants to go ahead with a $2.3 billion overhaul of locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers illustrates the economics and politics of large water projects in…