Commentaries

Enjoy a selection of my commentaries below. To see the full listing of commentaries, please click here.

Wyoming tends to its ‘gardening’

CASPER, Wyo. — Sixty years ago, Mississippi governor Hugh White established a program called Balance Agriculture with Industry. Purpose: To couple Mississippi’s low taxes, cheap land, unskilled labor and low wages with tax abatements and other subsidies — called “incentives” — to entice Northern industries to expand or relocate in the South. With this program,…

Tourism drives new economy First in a series

In 1976, the late futurist, Herman Kahn, predicted that tourism (including travel) would become the world’s No. 1 industry by the year 2000. Good instincts. Wrong year. According to a recent study by Wharton Econometrics, tourism became the world’s No. 1 industry in 1988, measured by employment — with more than 100 million people employed…

Bright economic news isn’t new

Economic news continues to improve. It began during the last three months of the Bush administration, when US economic growth led the industrialized world. Some observers are even beginning to talk about an “American resurgence.” Economic indicators are clear . Unemployment, now at 6.4%, is down sharply — the largest one-month drop in 10 years.…