“The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.” — Columnist Evan Thomas on learning of the innocence of the Duke lacrosse team by Craig Ladwig Perhaps the national media never really believed that a four-minute video clip showed overt racism by MAGA-hat-wearing southern teenagers. Maybe it didn’t care whether the killing of a seven-year-old black girl in Houston was by an imaginary white man in a hate crime or simply a routine gang-related homicide.…

by Leo Morris Pierre was a knucklehead. He was my first feline companion and lived to the ripe old age of 19 despite being an indoor-outdoor cat with more spunk than sense. At least once or twice a year, he would come home after a neighborhood excursion all battered and bloodied and spitting mad. A nap and a bite of food or two later, he was ready to head back out. It’s not that he…

“According to Amazon, the cost per job for New York taxpayers is $48,000 for its new headquarters, compared with $22,000 for Virginia and $13,000 for Tennessee. In a statement released by Amazon, Gov.  Andrew Cuomo called the agreement ‘one of the largest, most competitive economic-development investments in U.S. history.’” — Nov. 11, 2018, Fox5 News, New York City  GOV. ERIC HOLCOMB was “thrilled” to tell us last week that he persuaded 320 companies to locate or grow in Indiana. These businesses, the governor announced in…

by Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. Can soybeans be turned into washing machines? The alchemist of times past might try to convince us that it can be done. But we know better. Alchemy is an early, unscientific form of chemistry that tried, among other things, to change base metals into gold. Alchemy fell out of favor as it encountered failure after failure. Notwithstanding the unsuccessful efforts of alchemists, economists can explain how soybeans can be turned…

by Leo Morris A new session of the Indiana General Assembly has just begun, and there’s not a news outlet in the state that hasn’t emphasized what a tight budget the state faces this year. Tragically, our legislators will just not have enough of our money for all the spending they want to do. Here’s a typical description, from The Times of Northwest Indiana: “The December state revenue forecast estimated that Indiana will have $828.8…

by Mark Franke The local newspaper recently reported that my county has an official poverty rate of 13.1 percent, better than the other urban counties in Indiana. This is a good thing, right? Much of what we think of when the word “poverty” comes up involves ubiquitous government programs that provide what is popularly termed the safety net. These programs seek to alleviate the symptoms of poverty such as the need for food or housing.…

ALWAYS STRIVING TO PLEASE, the consummate professional Republican Eric Holcomb is pushing for hate-crime legislation. This seemingly is to demonstrate to corporate chiefs that reprobate Indiana finally “gets it” regarding shifting cultural norms. But for Indiana’s black communities such postured sensitivity merely distracts from real problems and real solutions. The killing last month in Houston of a seven-year-old black girl gave us a glimpse of the strange justice you tempt by subdividing crimes into those…

by Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. I was a professor of economics at three colleges over a period of 47 years. For two and one-half of those 47 years I was on leave with a non-teaching job I’ve always described as a great job to have had. So what was the job? I was an international economist at the Office of Foreign Economic Research at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Some of you…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. What is a fair wage? Should the coach of the men’s basketball team receive more pay than the coach of the college’s women’s basketball team? Should a 63-year-old, male, principal oboist and a 44-year-old, female, principal flautist receive the same pay from the Boston Symphony Orchestra? What could be more fair than correcting a salary difference representing gender bias? Or is there more to it than that? Let’s think through it.…

by Leo Morris Surely, I don’t have to remind you of all the bad news in the world. Even if you’re not the type to dwell upon the negative, there has been no escape from the endless litany of human misery and failure that has been dished out in the past few weeks. Year-in-review and year-to-come stories have painted a stark picture of exactly what’s wrong with the world. Terrorism. Populist uprisings. Ruthless dictators. Economic…