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IF INDIANA’S ECONOMIC AGENCIES are ineffective at actually creating wealth they are super effective at changing a region’s political makeup and economic strategy. Policies proven to attract investment such as guarantees of property rights, lower taxes, public safety, open competition, freedom from regulation, etc., are abandoned for the magic of those public-private “partnerships.” Economics by press release takes over. City councils fill with unquestioning boosters of fiscal schemes in the disguise of inarguable goods managed by self-serving insiders. The latest of the inarguable goods is programs to save the homeless. A law signed by Gov. Eric Holcombe this session allows Indianapolis to form a special taxing district to address an increased number of vagrants in the downtown sector. Why are they downtown? Because of the no-strings-attached welfare services offered there. How will the new tax-funded public-partnerships help? Well, they will supply more no-strings-attached welfare services there. Shazam, San Francisco on the White River. The result of all this is a deepening cynicism in a citizenry promised easy, immediate prosperity — that and a loss of competitive position vis-a-vis other states even as we say that our indebtedness is necessary to make us more competitive. Several years ago we asked a friend’s reaction on visiting newly remade, uber-progressive, sparkling downtown Carmel. Her reaction sums up that of our experts: “It’s impressive,” she said, “But it doesn’t look natural.” It’s not. — Ladwig in the upcoming Indiana Policy Review
Cover Essay | Return of the Music Man
Jason Arp | Would They Lie About a City’s Economic Growth?
Mozena | Economic-Development Agencies Don’t Matter
M. Keating | The Soul of Adam Smith’s Classical Liberalism
Morris | Property: Imagine It Anew / Now It’s Un-Memorial Day / The Gov Gets a Pay Raise / Citizen 0; Chicken Police 1 / Politics: Slow and Steady Does It / When Will the State Quit Taxing? / A Quaint Expression Rings True / Welcome to the Reality Gap / Here’s a Tip: Ask a Lot, Get a Lot / Our Broken Political System / A Prize for ‘Thieves’ at the Indiana BMV / Be Careful What You Consider your ‘Right’
Franke | Essential Characteristics of Public Leaders / The Black Hole of Genealogy / Are We Living in ‘1984’ or ‘Dune’? / The Constitutions ‘Selective Incorporation’ / The Risk Inherent in a Convention of States / The Attack on Marriage Is an Attack on Society / Baseball Cards: the Currency of Youth / The Salutary Effect of Religious Observance / The Iconoclasm of the Internet / The Two-Party Problem / DST: Dumb and Double-Dumb
The Bookshelf | The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 / The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus / The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East / King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great
Backgrounders | The Sexes: Follow the Science; Baseball, ‘Tis the Season; The Gap in the Equal Pay Gap (McGowan) / Racism? A Tale of Four Crimes; Barack Obama and the Racial Divide (Moss) / Artificial Intelligence: an Interview with the Future; Letter Jackets to Voting — How Low Can We Go? (Timmons) / Indiana Assessors Defy the Tax Court (Davidson) / Will We Let Science and Logic Die? (Eichenberger)
The Outstater | Not-so-Precious Moments / A City Named After a Boot / A Movie not for our Times / A Mayor Sells ‘Sustainability’ / The Persistence of Despotism / Don’t Give Up on Democracy Just Yet / The Power of Voting ‘No’ / Zoning: Government for Government’s Sake / Evil Party, Stupid Party (cont’d) / Matt Dillon to the Rescue / Indiana Has a Historian Gap / The Death of the Newspaper Biz
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