Close Calls In The Minnesota House
Of the 134 seats that were up for grabs in the Minnesota House, 10 were won by candidates who received less than 52 percent of the vote. Of those, 8 were Republicans, while 2 were Democrats. Republicans who just got by: Debra Kiel, 1B Carolyn McElfatrick, 3B King Banaian, 15B Glenn Gruenhagen, 25A Kelby Woodard, 25B Rich Murray, 27A Branden Petersen, 49B Kathy Lohmer, 56A […]
The Daily Grope: Abolish the TSA
Art Carden offers a way to improve security, the federal budget, and improve government treatment of citizens at the same time: abolish the TSA “For fiscal conservatives, it’s hard to come up with a more wasteful agency than the TSA. For privacy advocates, eliminating an organization that requires you to choose between a nude body scan or genital groping in order to board a plane should […]
Courage and Black Humor from Mark Steyn
When the going gets tough, the tough use black humor and courage. That’s one thought I had when reviewing last night’s event with Mark Steyn, presented by the Citizens’ Council on Health Care (CCHC), which as of last night is the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom. KTLK-FM host Sue Jeffers started things off by saying it was no accident the event was held on Veterans […]
Guns and Butter on Veterans Day
On this Veterans Day, I’d like to thank those who have labored in military service to this country. They have helped secure the environment in which people are free to engage in the production and sale of goods and services to fill a variety of human wants and needs. Commerce can and does occur during wartime, but a strong and effective military secures periods of […]
Part 5 in a Series on the Minnesota Corporate Income Tax: President Obama’s Tax Commission Agrees with Economists on Damage of Corporate Income Tax
Over the last two months, we’ve looked at some academic literature on the corporate income tax. With the general election over (or is it?), the discussion will soon be very non-academic. What will the people in charge of Minnesota’s tax system–the governor and the Legislature–do? The prospects for rectifying the problems with the corporate income tax are murky, at best. Candidate Mark Dayton, likely to […]
DFL Wins Governorship; Republicans Win Legislature: Here’s How
How can Minnesota Democrat (in Minnesota-speak, DFL) Mark Dayton win the governor’s office even when his party loses its majorities in the Legislature? Sure, the Independence Party, which captured almost 12 percent of the vote, is likely one factor. But another factor, which is easy to overlook, is the fact that the rule for counting legislative majorities is not the same as the rule for […]
Part 4 in a Series on the Minnesota Corporate Income Tax Debate: Encouraging Debt, Punishing Prudence
What effect does the corporate income tax have on corporate debt? That’s the topic in our latest edition of a series on the corporate income tax. More specifically, what are the effects of marginal corporate income tax rates on corporate debt, as measured by debt-equity ratios? As with the last time, the commentary comes from an article in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, by Simeon […]