Hello

Archives for April, 2009

Tax Those People!

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in case of Kelo v. New London, that the U.S. Constitution is no bar to cities seizing property from one private landowner and giving it to another. Following that decision, a number of states changed their laws to restrict the powers of eminent domain.

Minnesota was one of those states, though it allowed existing projects to proceed. One of those was the Cedar Grove project in the south metro suburb of Eagan.

In the words of mayor Mike Maguire, who recently wrote an op-ed on the subject,

“The area went into a steady decline over two decades. Restaurants became engine repair shops, a gas station became a truck rental facility, a grocery store became a paintball range and the old mall housed fewer and fewer shops.”

My first thought upon reading this was “what’s wrong with engine repair shops?” In recent years, some members of the city council have complained that the city’s northern section has “too many” trucking companies and not enough “quality” development.

City government has invested seven years in an effort to redo the area. It used its power of eminent domain to forcibly acquire properties in the area. Together with a commercial developer and community activists, it developed grand plans. In other words, it substituted the political process for the free market.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wall Street Journal: “The Real Culture War Is Over Capitalism”

vulture-capitalismAmerican Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal about the “major cultural schism” happening in America over the value of free enterprise.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Further Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

alice1Politics in Minnesota quotes Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, criticizing Governor Tim Pawlenty’s requirement that any project in the bonding bill currently under consideration be for asset preservation and not new construction.

“We can put many more people to work” with new construction projects thrown into the mix, Hausman said Monday at a news conference in St. Paul for the high-speed rail project between Chicago and the Union Depot in St. Paul.

Hausman is just one of many legislators that labors under the fallacy that the purpose of a bonding bill is creating jobs. She compounds that fallacy with the idea that building a high-speed rail line between Chicago and St. Paul that will operate at a loss will somehow be a benefit to the economy. Alice’s adventures in this economic Wonderland are explored in these Minnesota Free Market Institute commentaries:

Read the rest of this entry »

Page 1 of 8:1 2 3 4 »Last »