Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Leo Morris You’ve all heard the complaint. “If America can put a man on the moon, why can’t it . . . cure the common cold, or develop a long-lasting battery, or stop spending more than it takes in, or (fill in your favorite frustration)?” My current, less sweeping, version of that lament is:…

Editors: You can check the social-capital index of your readership in the current issue of The Indiana Policy Review, “Social Capital: How It’s Created,” appendix tables, pp. 35-37 by Craig Ladwig A social-capital index for my Indiana county has decreased even as the population has increased. And a low ranking on such an index, according…

by H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. Republicans in the Indiana House are attempting to block the plan of Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s (NIPSCO) to prematurely shutter two large coal power plants and replace them largely with renewable energy sources. Republicans on Indiana’s House Utilities Committee passed an amendment to a Senate sewage and water bill…

by Leo Morris The three major mayoral candidates in my town — the Democratic incumbent and his two chief Republican challengers — are all cheerleaders for “economic development.” These days, that means pushing huge capital projects with too much public funding and too little private risk for the purpose of moving huge numbers of consumers…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. The university admissions scandal “Operation Varsity Blues” is interesting on many levels: rich people working the system; corruption and bribery in institutions of higher learning; elite, liberal universities sullied by scandal and greed. But as an economist, the episode brings other comparisons to mind. First, consider how the scandal resembles both…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. A useful way to help students understand economic arrangements is to place the phrases “completely free market” and “perfect command systems” at the end of a line and assign places to countries on the line. A completely free market, a polar end of the continuum, has no regulation governing private property…

by Mark Franke “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” We’ve all seen a sign like this posted in workplaces, usually places where the boss is not likely to venture. It is part dark humor and part commentary on the disconnect between the elites and the hoi polloi. But this column is not about management…

by Leo Morris Would you like to see a self-professed strongly committed Christian in the White House? Which one? Democratic South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg or Republican Vice President Mike Pence? Both are quite candid about their religious faith, so we may presume it informs their political sensibilities, but the synthesis takes them in very…

by Craig Ladwig When a business looks to relocate in your community, the economic-development types will make its owners aware of favors that the political establishment can bestow. These will represent fixed or political capital — tax-increment financing, rebates, zoning exceptions, access to the mayor’s office, an inside track to municipal contracts, that sort of…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. There are two primary reasons for economists’ opposition to tariffs. First, by raising U.S. prices of imports, tariffs encourage high-cost domestic production of import substitutes. This production would be uneconomic in the tariffs’ absence. Cost measures what people sacrifice to obtain a particular objective, so substituting higher cost domestic…