jobs and employment	261
economics	201
state and local government	188
education	186
economic development	171
indiana	171
budget and spending	145
taxes	144
law and public policy	142
workforce and human capital	139

CBER Weekly Commentaries - 2005

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January 7, 2005	Job Growth Sure Beats the Alternative "...the recovery from the 2001 recession has left us plenty of unpaid bills, especially in the public sector."
January 14, 2005	Understanding Public Sector Growth "... the unusual strength in government hiring just as the recession was coming on, continuing into 2002, is sharply different from the previous recession of 1991."
January 21, 2005	Convention Centers as Economic Development "There’s been something like an arms race happening in the convention center business over the last ten years"
January 28, 2005	Fed Hits the Bull's Eye "...truth be told, it’s been luck more than skill that brought the economic throttle down so smoothly"
February 4, 2005	Indiana's New Metropolitan Areas "It reminds us that the forces of growth continue to push and redefine the borders of our regional economies."
February 11, 2005	Is Success a Problem for Wal-Mart? "When we criticize Wal-Mart for its focus on low priced, imported goods of all kinds, we are really criticizing ourselves."
February 18, 2005	Hard Times for Our Northern Neighbor "For the state that is the center of the automotive universe, headquarters of two of the three largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, you would think that these would be good times for Michigan."
February 25, 2005	In Defense of Free Trade Agreements "We should never make the mistake of accepting the idea that we are worse off today, economically, than we used to be."
March 4, 2005	More Wind in the Sails of Job Growth "...the new century U.S. economy is still one of the brightest stars on the global stage when it comes to growth."
March 11, 2005	Indiana Records Strong Job Growth "...statisticians have always known that surveys of job growth do a much better job of capturing job destruction – the layoff of workers by existing companies – than they do in picking up job creation."
March 18, 2005	Turning the Tide on Job Growth "We are a production-oriented state, and right now the production side of the economy is booming."
March 25, 2005	Enjoy Growth While It Still Lasts "When businesses throttle back on their spending plans, as they must do eventually, Indiana’s growth will more closely resemble its historical trend."
April 1, 2005	Revisiting the Crystal Ball "We’ve all seen the results of strong worldwide demand for energy every time we drive by a gas pump."
April 8, 2005	Random Views from an Economist's Perspective "There are 92 counties in Indiana, large and small. Some of them are economic haves, but most are have-not’s."
April 15, 2005	What Is a Price Index, Anyway? "The questions may be technical, but their ramifications are profound."
April 22, 2005	Another Unemployment Rate Riddle "Due to an unexpectedly large surge in unemployment in the first two months of 2005, the state’s unemployment rate now stands above the national average for the first time since 1987."
April 29, 2005	Indiana Standard Time "Indiana’s reluctance to change its practices and traditions to conform with national trends is a long-standing one."
May 6, 2005	Private Sector Management Meets Public Sector Challenges "If we do a poor job in providing public services, we risk driving talented people and new investment away, and shrinking the pie for everyone."
May 13, 2005	Expect More Tightening by the Fed "The list of commodities whose prices are rising is as long as your arm – including aluminum, energy goods, paper and many plastics."
May 20, 2005	The Outlook for the Labor Market "Much has been written and said in Indiana about the kinds of jobs that are disappearing in communities throughout the state. But much less is said, or understood, about the kinds of jobs that are taking their place."
May 27, 2005	Solutions to Problems Create Problems "We have come to expect our governments to take some of the hard edges off of market capitalism."
June 3, 2005	The Tax Coffers are Filling in Indiana "What most Americans want – and what is impossible to give them – is a tax they can avoid."
June 10, 2005	The Real Problem with General Motors "Clearly a healthy GM is a good thing for our state. But if we’re ever going to gain ground on the rest of the country in economic growth, we’ve got to start planting some eggs in different baskets."
June 17, 2005	Where Do Job Skills Come From? "...some research now suggests that some of the most important determinants of our future earnings are formed at a very young age."
June 24, 2005	Put Away the Job-Counting Calculators "If we can pry our eyes away from job totals and consider a different way of keeping score, a picture of the state economy emerges that may surprise you."
July 1, 2005	My City is Bigger than Your City "A glance at township growth patterns reveals that supposedly shrinking places like Bloomington, Evansville or Fort Wayne are in fact surrounded by jurisdictions moving in the other direction."
July 8, 2005	Have Gas Prices Lost Their Sting? "Compared to medical care, college tuition, housing, or even food, the increase in gasoline prices over the past twenty-five years has been quite modest."
July 15, 2005	The Indiana Economy at Mid Year "The good news is that the fire that is propelling the state’s economic engine – growth in the industrial economy – appears to be still burning brightly."
July 22, 2005	Hot Housing Markets Hard to Find Here "In the Indianapolis metropolitan area, median home prices nudged up by an almost imperceptible 0.5 percent last year."
July 29, 2005	Another Solid Quarter for the National Economy "Particularly heartening for the Indiana economy is the news on business spending."
August 5, 2005	The Bright Star in the Center of Indiana "Indianapolis is not only growing its job base faster than the rest of the state, but the earnings and growth potential of many of those jobs is stronger as well."
August 12, 2005	Separating Job Growth Fact from Fiction v"There are more oddball, inexplicable, and exaggerated movements in employment, hours, and earnings data for the month of July than at any time of the year."
August 19, 2005	The Upside of Higher Energy Prices "Those nasty little numbers that we see hanging on poles and billboards as we commute to and from our jobs seem to trump everything else when it comes to forming an opinion on the economy."
August 26, 2005	Health Care Premiums Are Killing Jobs "... in a world where employers pick up a large share of health care costs of their workforce, rising health costs make it harder to find and keep a job."
September 2, 2005	The Fragile Façade of Confidence "The attention of the media thus far has been focused on gasoline, but the problems go much deeper than that."
September 9, 2005	The Challenge for Indiana’s Workforce " The harsh truth is that when we try to create, nurture and recruit companies who sell expertise and knowledge, instead of physical goods, our workforce capabilities are a detriment, instead of an asset."
September 16, 2005	Data Haves and Have Nots"When it comes to knowing how the economy is performing, what industries are growing and which are shrinking, or even how many people have jobs, the data for the state’s 51 non-metropolitan area counties are frustratingly incomplete and out of date."
September 23, 2005	Paying the Price for Fiscal Irresponsibility "... if the knowledge that the national credit card is not yet maxed out reassures you, it does not do the same for me"
September 30, 2005	Katrina Made Me Do It "... we had high energy prices, a weak airline industry, big budget deficits, and a fractious political environment well before those now-famous low pressure cells ever started to congeal over the Atlantic."
October 14, 2005	The Shoe Falls at Delphi "Reorganization at Delphi also presents new opportunities in the vehicle parts landscape that existing or future Indiana companies may take advantage of."
October 21, 2005	Cheer Up, the Economy’s OK "In a national economy that is well into its fourth consecutive year of growth, in a state where both job growth and tax revenues are up strongly, many of us still think that the economy is in bad shape"
October 28, 2005	Paying the Price for Free Goods. "The result is that businesses costs are unnecessarily high, affecting productivity and competitiveness"
November 4, 2005	Another Failing Technology Grade "... as once backwater states like Idaho and Utah move up the rankings while we remain stationary, one can only ask, why can’t it happen here?"
November 11, 2005	Predicting Indiana’s Economic Future"After growing at double digit rates for the first half of this year, growth in individual income tax receipts came to an abrupt halt in the third quarter."
November 18, 2005	Distinguishing Ourselves From the Competition"In the coming decade, it’s a pretty safe bet that distinctions between Midwest states like Indiana and the rest of the country will become more blurred, but that day isn’t here yet."
November 25, 2005	Changes on the Farm "With so much healthy and productive farm land all around us, shouldn’t we be thinking about ways that we capitalize on that proximity and take a bigger role in exploiting those opportunities?"
December 2, 2005	Economy Ending the Year Strong "For economists, reading these upbeat reports on the economy makes us feel a little like Indianapolis Colts fans do as they read their Monday morning sports sections."
December 9, 2005	Financing Local Government "It’s nearly impossible to overhaul the tax system in a way that makes everyone pay less, and you can expect those who might pay more to make plenty of noise. "
December 16, 2005	Multiplying Our Way to Prosperity "The idea that dollars spent in an economy can induce further spending, as those who receive the first round of spending as income spend part of their new wealth, has been around a long time."
December 23, 2005	King for a Day on Property Taxes"The so-called reform of Indiana’s property tax three years ago was all sizzle and no steak."
December 30, 2005	Riding the Wave of Interest in Development"... the dramatic increase in talk of spurring economic growth has not necessarily been matched by advances in the state of knowledge in how it should be done."

Center for Business and Economic Research - Ball State University

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CBER Weekly Commentaries - 2005