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Tax costs block progress in Kansas
Read more: Tax costs block progress in KansasIf we in Kansas and Wichita wonder why our economic growth is slow and our economic development programs don’t seem to be producing results, there is now data to answer the question why: Our tax costs are high — way too high.
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Myth: Markets cannot possibly produce public (collective) goods
Read more: Myth: Markets cannot possibly produce public (collective) goodsThe public goods justification for the state is one of the most commonly misapplied of economic arguments. But many goods that are allegedly impossible to provide through markets have been, or are at present, provided through market mechanisms — from lighthouses to education to policing to transportation, which suggests that the common invocation of alleged…
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Wichita’s bailout culture
Read more: Wichita’s bailout cultureThe Wichita City Council will consider a bailout of a real estate development. If the council takes this action, it is just one more step in a series of bailouts granted by the city, and it sets up expectations that the city will continue bailouts, creating a severe climate of moral hazard.
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Wichita teacher labor kerfuffle illustrates the problem
Read more: Wichita teacher labor kerfuffle illustrates the problemA dispute over teacher working conditions in USD 259, the Wichita public school district, provides a window into the workings of the public school system and its problems. There is a way out, but it’s not happening in Kansas.
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Myth: Markets only work when an infinite number of people with perfect information trade undifferentiated commodities
Read more: Myth: Markets only work when an infinite number of people with perfect information trade undifferentiated commoditiesAbstract models of economic interaction can be useful, but when normatively loaded terms such as “perfect” are added to theoretical abstractions, a great deal of harm can be done. For the state to be the agency that would move markets to such “perfection,” we would expect that it, too, would be the product of “perfect”…
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Intrust Bank Arena finances: The worst news is hidden
Read more: Intrust Bank Arena finances: The worst news is hiddenThe true state of the finances of the Intrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita are not often a subject of public discussion. Arena boosters promote a revenue-sharing arrangement between the county and the arena operator, referring to this as profit or loss. But this arrangement is not an accurate and complete accounting, and hides the…
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Myth: Markets depend on perfect information, requiring government regulation to make information available
Read more: Myth: Markets depend on perfect information, requiring government regulation to make information availableMarkets do not require for their operation perfect information, any more than democracies do. Significantly, politicians and voters have less incentive to acquire the right amount of information than do market participants, because they aren’t spending their own money.
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Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Wednesday April 25, 2012
Read more: Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Wednesday April 25, 2012Today: Income growth in Kansas and Sedgwick County; Tax reform is needed in Kansas; Protect us from onion prices; Silencing ALEC; TSA in Wichita, and in general; An extra comma; If I wanted America to fail.
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Regulation for the sake of business
Read more: Regulation for the sake of businessThere are many examples of how the conventional wisdom regarding regulation is wrong, That wisdom being Republicans and conservatives are in bed with government, seeking to unshackle business from the burden of government regulation. Democrats and liberals, on the other hand, are busily crafting regulations to protect the middle class from the evils of big…
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In Kansas, tax reform is about job creation
Read more: In Kansas, tax reform is about job creationTwo groups working to create a more competitive economic environment in Kansas are Americans for Prosperity, Kansas and Kansas Policy Institute. Their video commercial from earlier this year that explains the urgent situation in Kansas is below.
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Rich States, Poor States 2012 edition released
Read more: Rich States, Poor States 2012 edition releasedThis month American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released the fifth edition of Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index. As in the past, Kansas performs in the middle of the pack in one measure, below average in another, with little or no progress achieved in making Kansas competitive with other states.