My teaching session on national income accounting always yields the same question: “How can anyone live on $400 a year?” In the United States, per capita income was $29,676 in 1999, while in Bangladesh it was under $380. Anyone in…
Farm subsidies a regressive reality
“It’s like putting your kid on a diet and telling him that he absolutely can’t eat more than one pound of sugar a day.” That’s how one USDA official in Minnesota characterized the $275,000 limit on annual subsidy payments to…
Real costs of programs must be weighed against benefits
The Legislature is in session and, with the state facing a budget shortfall, virtually every state program is on the table even though even-year legislatures traditionally deal only with bonding for capital projects. Chances are good that three programs of…
End of recession hard to pin down
In an exchange of ideas with my editor the other day, he asked simply: How and when will we know that the recession is over? That’s a good question, particularly in a recession so mild there are not many visible…