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Trump’s Tariff Recession Is HereMy new forecast, completed in late April, predicts a national recession began as early as March in reaction to Trump’s tarriffs.

Two Key Economic Lessons in One BillHoosiers face trade-offs and opportunity costs in the wake of SEA1.

Time to Fix Economic Development PolicyAllocating tax dollars to land development won’t cause economic growth.

The Unanticipated Effects of SB1Businesses, governments and households may all feel the effects.

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Commentaries tagged with growth

April 27, 2025 Time to Fix Economic Development PolicyAllocating tax dollars to land development won’t cause economic growth.
February 2, 2025 The Great State of Illiana (or is it Indinois?)Deep economic divergence has gripped the United States for four decades.
November 17, 2024 The Degrowth Movement Is Wrong and ImmoralDegrowthers are terribly mistaken in three big ways.
November 3, 2024 My Apology to LogansportThe city is well known as an immigration success story in the Midwest.
September 22, 2024 Indiana’s Small Towns Need More ImmigrantsMany Midwestern counties are in their fourth or fifth decade of population decline.
September 15, 2024 IEDC’s Unhappy 20th AnniversaryIndiana must become a place where education and skills of people form the central mission of state and local economic development policies.
September 1, 2024 Urban Growth Dominates the US Economy – and Puts Rural Places at RiskEducation becomes more important as more people become educated.
July 14, 2024 We Are Nearing Fed Rate CutsAll the talk of a crashing, risk-filled economy where people are struggling is unsupported by actual data.
June 2, 2024 Regional Cities Initiative, an Economic BoonBehind the concept was a clear understanding that most economic growth was happening in cities with solid quality-of-life investments.
March 10, 2024 Are We in the Early Stages of a Long Economic Boom?Economists aren’t yet sure why labor productivity is growing, but I can offer two educated guesses.
December 31, 2023 Education After High School Is the Path to Middle-Class LifeJobs of the future require at least some college training.
December 24, 2023 Leaving Behind Dickensian PovertyThis Christmas holiday is not about worldly wealth, but it is a time of giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy.
October 22, 2023 Economic Perceptions Driven by Educational and Geographic Differences in ProsperityThe geography of economic opportunity is shrinking.
September 10, 2023 China Is a Poor and Failing NationChina is getting in the way of its own economic growth.
August 20, 2023 Face the Fact: Factory Jobs Aren’t Coming BackFor every factory job Indiana lost since 1973, other industries created seven more jobs.
July 9, 2023 Human Capital Is the Source of ProsperitySuccessful places are both good for business and good for families.
June 25, 2023 Growing and Declining Places Have Different ChallengesThe Midwest came of age at a time when natural amenities and recreational opportunities played only a modest role in prosperity or migration.
April 30, 2023 A Good Post-COVID Run for the Hoosier EconomyIndiana entered COVID with an already weakening economy.
March 19, 2023 Remote Work Through the Eyes of Three 20-SomethingsRemote work is here to stay.
February 26, 2023 Subsidizing Builders Fixes the Wrong Housing ProblemRemote workers and their families can now live wherever they wish.
February 19, 2023 Balancing the Federal BudgetThere’s no silver bullet that will return our debt to comfortable levels.
January 15, 2023 Three Types of Public DebtAll types of public debt are effectively transfers of wealth from the future to our present selves.
January 1, 2023 The CHIPS Act Was Wise LegislationSemiconductors are a key part of national defense, among other industries.
November 27, 2022 Economic Optimism and Worry on ThanksgivingThe balance of power between freedom and tyranny has never been this favorable.
October 9, 2022 A Recession Is Time to Think About the Long TermManufacturing employment is now a smaller part of our economy than it was in previous downturns.
July 24, 2022 Why Are Rich Places Growing and Poor Places in Decline?To participate in a new economy, a community’s workforce must possess the ability to absorb new skills that may be vastly different from what they currently know.
June 26, 2022 Inflation Affects Each Family DifferentlyWe understand earthquakes and hurricanes better than we do inflation.
June 12, 2022 Time to Dump the Rich States, Poor States RankingsTax policy is the wrong incentive to spur economic growth.
May 8, 2022 The Lives of Mothers Through the Last CenturyThe women of the 20th century witnessed the most stunning technological and economic growth.
May 1, 2022 Lilly CEO Speaks to Indiana’s FutureIndiana must better educate a higher share of its young adults and make more communities into places they’d like to live.
March 27, 2022 A Tough Two Decades for the Hoosier EconomyMost of Indiana’s job growth this century has been in low-wage work.
March 20, 2022 Quality of Life Spending Is a Conservative PolicyHome prices and wages signal the desirability of communities.
October 24, 2021 Deep Worries About Education and Employment Are Still With UsIndiana will start 2022 with three consecutive years of declining educational attainment of adults.
August 29, 2021 COVID Reveals Regional InequalityThe latest jobs report captures the geographic clustering of COVID and economic performance.
July 11, 2021 What Is ‘Quality of Place?’When choosing a place to live, workers consider the wages they will earn against the cost of housing and access to amenities.
June 6, 2021 What Economists Got Right and Wrong about COVIDShifts in labor, occupational structure, and community amenities influence the degree of recovery.
April 25, 2021 Polarization of Jobs and PlacesUnfortunately, short-term spending policies aren't likely have much long-term effect on the decline of middle-wage jobs.
April 18, 2021 The Post-COVID World Favors High Quality-of-Place CommunitiesBetween 23 million and 35 million households will find themselves newly unencumbered by the need to live within an easy daily commute to work.
March 28, 2021 What Will This Economic Recovery Yield for Indiana?The quest to better fund schools and improve our workforce cannot become a partisan issue.
February 21, 2021 Questions from an Economic ForecastThe economic recovery is in the hands of vaccine distributors, not economic policymakers.
September 20, 2020 The Real Problem with Our National DebtIt’s important to explain how the debt does and does not matter.
February 23, 2020 Returning to Economic Growth Requires PatienceThere are no quick solutions, only long ones.
December 10, 2017 A Forecast for 2018Ineffective policy interventions accompanied the Great Recession.
January 1, 2017 The Hoosier Economy Flourished Under Governor Pence Mike Pence made three important moves in his successful governorship.
November 20, 2016 What Will a Trump Presidency Bring to Our Economy?It seems probable that big changes can noticeably affect economic growth.
October 9, 2016 Slow Growth Our Biggest ProblemA 2-percent difference in economic growth means a 63-year lag in stardard of living.
October 2, 2016 Economic Changes Mean Primacy of Place MattersMaking cities good for workers is good for business.
July 10, 2016 Indiana’s Economy: Better than expected, worse than it should beIndiana outperforms the nation in most every metric except education.
August 2, 2015 The Chinese Bubble Is Only the BeginningEconomic growth can come from technology advances, increased productivity, or an increase in human or financial capital.
June 21, 2015 Watch Economic Development SpendingBusinesses must locate where their customers are, not where economic developers lure them.
November 30, 2014 Worries During the Forecasting SeasonAt this rate, our standard of living will double in 80 years.
June 8, 2014 Slow Growth and TechnologyFor some time, much of the nation believed that each new generation would be better off than the previous one.
March 23, 2014 Inflation and GrowthCurrent models can teach the basics of economic functions, but fail to illustrate the conditions for long-term growth.
April 15, 2013 Bourgeois Dignity and the Modern WorldIf the encouragement of a young Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison or Bill Gates is key to economic growth, how are we doing as a nation?

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