by Fred McCarthy The headline on a recent article out of Indianapolis says, “Council Panel OKs $148K to Fund ‘Economic Recovery Coordinator.’” The text tells us that the city council’s Metropolitan and Economic Development Corp. there approved $147,916 (for “salary and some basic administrative costs”) to fund the first year of the three-year contract position. This is to be an individual to help workers laid off to “move on to new employment.” It specifically refers…

by David Thomas, Ph.D. The political tumult surrounding the proposed replacement of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with a Republican alternative (Trumpcare), underpins a greater concern felt by many households: Will another inside-the-beltway proposal, imposed by the majority du jour, be an improvement over the previous effort, foisted on the minority? Or does another painful transition of even more rules, red tape and regulation with even higher costs await us in the next few years?…

For the use of the membership only. IF YOU HANG AROUND LONG ENOUGH you begin to recognize historic moments. So it was when several officers of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation sat down for afternoon coffee in Indianapolis almost 20 years ago with two bright young stars of the conservative movement. Stephen Moore, a friend of the foundation, conducted fiscal seminars for us in both Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. Moore, who had founded the Club…

by Cmdr. John Pickerill Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is why the America tradition has always been separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial. By separating powers we citizens are better protected against government corruption or tyrannical behavior. One branch of government can hold the other in check. But somewhere along the line Indiana got away from this tradition when it comes to city government, specifically the chief executive of…

Not for publication, quotation or distribution. For the use of the membership only. “This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s. And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.” — Sir Thomas More challenging…

by T. Norman Van Cott Among economics data watchers, a country’s exports enjoy a hallowed status. The ability of producers in country A to sell goods and services to people in other countries is taken as a sign of A’s economic strength, although the underlying metric for economic strength goes unmentioned. In addition, job counters across the spectrum constantly count the number of jobs associated with exports. The more export-related jobs, the better. In a…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. I recently received an e-mail from Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of the New York Times, to which I subscribe. He knows that the media are under attack from President Trump and he wrote to ‘defend’ the media and “assert the value of quality journalism,” since, after all, “the truth matters, now more than ever.” As well, “the truth…is also incredibly hard to get to.” Nonetheless, Sulzberger states, “we remain…

by Jason Arp Government-run economic development entities are having a difficult time replicating the real thing. News stories from around Indiana point to problems related to creating what I call synthetic economies: The Muncie building commissioner is charged with wire fraud, theft and money-laundering; a Marion tax district lost $2.5 million on a failed hotel project; Crawfordsville and Montgomery County defunded their economic development corporations; the Angola Herald-Republican filed a public access complaint against the Steuben…

IF YOU ARE AMONG THOSE struggling with a definition of “fake” news, we have an illustration (below). It is from page 4A of the Monday issue of the Gannett corporate national publication known locally as the Indianapolis Star. You can see that the page has three items on it: a news article and two advertisements. One of the advertisements, with only a small-print disclaimer, is laid out to look like a news article, complete with a…

Barack Obama: America’s Anti-American President — Governance and Security Implications John F. Gaski, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Mendoza College of Business University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 46556 574-631-5266 jgaski@nd.edu The author is a long-time registered Democrat―and a long-time registered Republican― intermittently, not sequentially, which should dispatch any possible impression of partisanship. Dr. Gaski’s primary research field is the study of social and political power and conflict. Abstract This analytical item revisits some public matters…