Missouri Economic Development Incentives Aren’t Worth It
From January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023, Missouri issued just under $233 million in economic incentives, according to the...
Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs
It’s fitting that a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on job openings was released during Missouri’s...
Film Tax Credits Still a Bad Idea
It is appropriate that in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story on an effort to reinstate film tax credits, the newspaper...
Missouri’s Making Improvements, but Still Trailing
The last few months have been good for the economy. The benefits of the recent federal tax cuts appear to...
Missouri’s Economy Struggles Despite a Low Unemployment Rate
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released some good news about the employment numbers from May: Fourteen states saw their...
TIF Doesn’t Create Jobs
Paul F. Byrne, a professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas—who has examined tax increment financing (TIF) use in Missouri...
Missouri’s Weak Employment Mirrors Weak Economic Growth
Last week I posted a comparison of output in Missouri to that of the United States. The bottom line is...
Job Growth in Missouri: Depends on Where You Live
Missouri’s nonfarm employment growth over the past year significantly lags nearly every other state. The picture is somewhat brighter for...
Seattle’s Minimum Wage Experience A Cautionary Tale
When the price of a thing goes up, people buy less of it. We experience this every day when buying...
Missouri Jobs Increase at Slow Pace
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its current snapshot of labor markets across states. While jobs in Missouri have...
Seeded With Tax Cuts, Kansas Harvests the Benefits
As first appearing in the Wall Street Journal: Liberals love to hate Sam Brownback, and for good reason. The Kansas...
Are Things Looking Up in Kansas?
There is an old story from the Civil War that takes place after the first day of the Battle of...
Touted Benefits of the Film Tax Credit Program Are Misleading
On Wednesday, March 18, the House Committee on Economic Development and Business Attraction and Retention held a hearing on House Bill...
The Good and Not-So-Good News from Missouri’s Labor Market
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released its report on state employment (see Table 5) allowing us to see how...
St. Louis Development Corporation Just Making Stuff Up
The 2013 annual report for the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) is out. Let’s give them credit for timeliness, at...
The Kansas/Missouri Economic Border War, In A Graph
Via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, who does it look like has been winning the battle lately? Stay above...
False Pride: Missouri’s Governor Shouldn’t Be Boasting About “Low” Unemployment
As first appearing in the Weekly Standard on July 7th, 2013 (a slightly different version ran in the July 14th...
Dismantling The Post-Dispatch’s Piece About Education (Part 2 of 4)
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board recently issued an opinion piece riddled with errors, faulty assumptions, and half-truths. This post...
An Impromptu Follow-Up To ‘Responsible Bidder’ Blog Series
I recently wrote a two–part blog series about new Saint Louis County regulations that would prevent most non-union contractors from...
So, Is Missouri Really Falling Behind?
That question is asked a lot these days. The answer really depends on which figures are examined. If one looks...
- 1
- 2
