jobs and employment	275
economics	217
state and local government	205
education	198
indiana	189
economic development	181
law and public policy	162
taxes	161
budget and spending	160
workforce and human capital	153

CBER Weekly Commentaries - 2012

January 3, 2012	A New Year’s ReviewThe New Year is a time of reflection. For someone who comments upon the economy and provides analysis and forecasts, it should be a time to take stock and be honest about where I was right and wrong. I begin with my errors.
January 9, 2012	College Debt and College MajorsA growing percentage of college graduates has pursued degrees that offer no employment prospects to match the cost of college.
January 17, 2012	What to Expect from Right-to-Work Legislation in Indiana...we should expect no effect on manufacturing, for good or ill, in wages or employment as a consequence of RTW.
January 23, 2012	Measuring IntangiblesTo effectively evaluate the wisdom of public policies… we require measurement of many different ‘intangibles.’
January 30, 2012	The State of the UnionThe constitutional obligation of the U.S. president to report “from time to time” to Congress on the state of the union is a rightly awesome event.
February 6, 2012	Super Bowl Research and Economic ImpactsFor a community that prepares well, the Super Bowl elevates the destination status of the city to new heights.
February 13, 2012	Time for Labor Unions to ChangeThe passage of right-to-work law didn’t so much kill unions as simply remove them from life support.
February 20, 2012	Markets and GrowthMarkets rule supreme, but they also work imperfectly and will do so as long as humans themselves remain imperfect.
February 27, 2012	Corporate Tax Cuts and the ElectionPresident Obama unveiled a plan to reduce U.S. corporate tax rates while changing loopholes.
March 5, 2012	Gasoline Prices and the ElectionLast week our president gave what was billed as an important speech about gas prices.
March 12, 2012	Manufacturing Is Alive and WellManufacturing came to the Midwest because we had an abundance of the right workers.
March 19, 2012	It Is the Value Proposition, Not Costs, That Should Drive the Higher Education DebateThe real problem isn’t increasing costs, but uncertain benefits.
March 26, 2012	Smoking Law Recognizes the Value of LifeAt worst, this legislation will make Hoosiers look like we've entered the 21st century.
April 2, 2012	The Joke's on Us with Social SecurityIf treated as a financial investment, Social Security is a really very effective way to destroy wealth.
April 9, 2012	Types of UnemploymentThe difficulty [of estimating the unemployment rate] lies not in the statistical analysis or in the quality of the data, but in the fact that people change.
April 16, 2012	Accounting Mistakes and Local Government ReformThe $206 million in late payments is about half the total tax revenue our states' woefully mismanaged townships kept sitting in the bank over the past several years.
April 23, 2012	Spending, Debt and Long-Run GrowthThe past four or five years have exposed many Americans to a continuing debate over the role of government spending in a recession and resurrected for them the ghosts of many long-dead economists.
April 30, 2012	The Hunger Games and FreedomWhat has kept me in a three-week state of shock is the message on values our kids are getting from this work.
May 7, 2012	A Debate on the Federal ReserveIt is again time to think seriously about the role of the Federal Reserve.
May 14, 2012	A European and American RecessionAs disparate facts, the conditions in Europe and the U.S. are disconcerting.
May 21, 2012	Policy Choices: Austerity or AusterityTaking steps toward austerity is not what has caused Europe's recession.
May 28, 2012	Some Economics of Lasting ChangeThe warrior part of being a soldier is rewarding, even in the direst of settings.
June 4, 2012	A Fix for Financial RegulationChanges to financial regulations have largely been focused on expanding the reach of existing and new financial regulatory agencies.
June 11, 2012	The Failure of Public UnionsWhat this election portends is a serious conversation about public unions and their benefits.
June 18, 2012	Fathers and Personal Discount RateThe more you value the future, the more highly you are apt to be valued by the economy, and vice versa.
June 25, 2012	Taxes for All in 2013One brilliancy of the Bush tax cuts is that they are virtually un-repealable.
July 2, 2012	US Job Market and the EU CrisisOne need not have done well in math to appreciate that the creation of 150,000 new jobs per month is insufficient to budge the unemployment rate.
July 9, 2012	Smart Cuts in GovernmentIt is often argued that government workers are overpaid and over-benefitted, but I think that the composition of the government workforce is a more pressing matter.
July 16, 2012	Tax or Spend, That Is the ArgumentEconomic debates are far more sanguine, with more universal agreement than is apparent to outsiders.
July 22, 2012	Job Creation and DestructionGovernments don't create jobs, businesses do.
July 29, 2012	Policies for the Coming RecessionAn increasing share of forecasters now join me in predicting a recession later this year or early in the next.
August 6, 2012	A Half Century of Economic GrowthThe location of factories no longer determines where people live, rather the quality of communities do.
August 13, 2012	Marriage and Chicken SandwichesQuite simply, government ought to remain neutral on the ways in which families organize themselves.
August 20, 2012	A College Diploma Is Worthless, but the Education Is Priceless It is the college education that matters most, not the diploma.
August 26, 2012	The Arts Matter, When Art Lovers Are FreeThe measurement of value in an artistic endeavor will always lie in the hearts of men and women.
September 2, 2012	Labor Day and the Transformation of UnionsOn this weekend it might be good to focus on what has become of the labor movement that once meant so much to America.
September 9, 2012	Global Slowdown Comes to WyomingA slowing world economy… suggests increased risk of a recession here at home.
September 16, 2012	Corporations and GreedCorporations differ from other business in that their ownership is diffused across people who have purchased shares of the company.
September 23, 2012	Performance Evaluations and the Way We Teach TeachersPerhaps we ought to entirely rethink the role of teachers colleges.
September 30, 2012	Immigration and Hope in the MidwestIt is markets, not urban theorists, who set value.
October 7, 2012	Bernanke Visits IndyBernanke maintained that monetary policy was not a panacea for our economic woes.
October 14, 2012	Not Lying, Just Bad News in Employment NumbersOne out of every 17 workers are part-time workers due to an ailing economy.
October 21, 2012	Are Families an Economic Issue?For those in long-term poverty, there are two causes: physical or mental illness or some form of failing families.
October 28, 2012	More Clarity on Gender and PayIt should not be surprising that the majority of wage differences between men and women can be explained by schooling, occupational choice, and experience.
November 4, 2012	The Problems with Polling and Predicting Conducting voter polls has become more difficult in recent years, despite (or maybe because of) a spate of new technological developments that should have made it easier.
November 11, 2012	The Next Big CrisisBond markets have already identified two states that cannot possibly pay their obligations, and a further four that are in serious trouble.
November 18, 2012	Thelma and Louise Approach the Fiscal CliffThe spending cuts of the fiscal cliff will be far less broadly injurious than most suppose.
November 25, 2012	‘Scooby Snacks’ and The Great American GiveawayHere, we'll focus on the ‘something for nothing’ crowd.
December 2, 2012	Demagoguery and Truth About TaxesWe should be a bit mindful of demagoguery about taxes.
December 9, 2012	Perhaps It Is Time to Pay Our DebtsAs a great nation, we build and do things that endure and these should be paid for, in part, by successive generations.
December 16, 2012	Forecasts of the EconomyA well thought out economic forecast offers a great deal of useful information.
December 23, 2012	Maximizing Utility Over the HolidaysThe holiday seasons remind us in part how we live a life.
December 30, 2012	Looking Back on the Daniels AdministrationThere were failures, successes and unfinished business.

Center for Business and Economic Research - Ball State University

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CBER Weekly Commentaries - 2012