The economy grew at a 1.1 percent annual rate during the three months that ended in June. This was less than the 2.4 percent predicted by some private forecasters. For the three months ended in March, the economy grew at…
Understanding price shifts
“We just paid our home insurance, and it rose by 44.5 percent. How can the officially published inflation rate be low when one sees instances of immense price increases?” That query, in an e-mail from a reader, raises some useful…
O’Neill doesn’t deserve bad rap
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, singled out for criticism from a variety of critics, is getting a bum rap. I’m not a big fan of the Bush administration’s economic policies, but O’Neill deserves credit for doing a workman job, if not…
Changing laws on drug imports may result in surprises
Minnesota’s congressional delegation is showing unusual solidarity in efforts to remove restrictions on imports of prescription drugs from Canada or other countries. Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone and Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht don’t see eye-to-eye on many issues, but they have…