by John Gaski, Ph.D. Several years ago, the South Bend Tribune printed a speculative, futuristic rendering of a potential South Bend skyline, along with an article featuring the titular question, “Can We Dream Big?” Most readers likely had my same natural reaction, to wit: The dream hardly matters and speculation is idle as long as our city has such economically misguided political leadership, the same kind of stagnant administration decade after decade. In fact, South…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell have written “Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World” — a breezy book on a stale and lousy economic system. Its casual tone is rooted in their use of beer as a metaphor and a key prop to describe socialism in various countries. Their punchline: Many people advocate socialism without knowing what it is. Socialism is when government owns all of…

by Leo Morris “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” – Gideon J. Tucker, 1866 I just visited my brother in Texas. Let me tell you a little about that state. It is so big that it could encompass Indiana and 12 other states with plenty of room left over. The area of Houston alone is roughly the size of Connecticut. It has 17 metropolitan areas of 200,000…

SOME YEARS AGO two officers of this foundation sat down with a powerful GOP committee chairman. We were there to discuss a year-long study that explained why teachers were concerned about Indiana education and how the Statehouse could make teachers’ lives better and their classrooms more effective places to learn. The committee chairman read the executive summary over coffee and then pushed it back across the table. “I couldn’t get this out of committee,” he…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. When one of my sons does something unexpected, I like to joke: “Who are you and what have you done with my son?” After reading Elizabeth Warren’s three books on politics, I had the same question about her. The first, “The Two-Income Trap” in 2003, is moderate or even conservative. Some of her arguments on public policy consequences are so well-reasoned that it brings a tear to an economist’s eye. But…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. Larry DeBoer and Tamara Ogle of Purdue University presented a comprehensive webinar last month entitled “On Local Government: A Look at State and Local Taxes in Indiana.” It is worthwhile summarizing a few of their findings.   The webinar, sponsored by Community Development Extension, asked, “How high or low are Indiana’s taxes compared with other states?” It analyzed Indiana’s tax regime both in terms of economic incentives and in taxes paid…

by Leo Morris My daddy he made whiskey, my granddaddy he did, too. We ain’t paid no whiskey tax since 1792. — From “Copper Kettle,” a song by Frank Beddoe, 1946 In one of the first big tests of his presidency, George Washington was confronted with a rebellion in the heartland. Farmers in western Pennsylvania balked at paying a federal tax on distilled spirits enacted in 1791 so the new government could retire its revolutionary…

By Richard Moss, M.D With the launching of the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” the self-promoted “paper of record” seeks to reframe American history. Formerly we had assumed the birth of the nation to be July 4, 1776, with the writing of the Declaration of Independence. But no, the newspaper has another date in mind. It is now said to be 1619 with the importing of the first African slaves to America. That moment, the…

by Leo Morris I had not planned on covering the same topic for two columns in a row, but here we are. Let’s call this one, “Retirement musings, Part 2.” That’s what happens when you have time to fill. Your mind tends to wander, and sometimes it lands in a spot you’ve already been to. My sister is coming up on that age when she’s thinking about being a woman of leisure, and she wants…

THE PLAYWRIGHT DAVID MAMET asserts in “The Secret Knowledge” that modern public opinion can be divided into two camps: those who cannot get passed the fact that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and those who for reasons of historical context are ambivalent are moving on. After yesterday’s gruesome municipal elections, I have some advice for my political friends (you two know who you are). It is to ignore public opinion from that first camp.  A model…