Browsing: Economy

Sales tax exemption isn’t a subsidy but a common shield against increasing consumers’ prices with hidden levies.

Wisconsin’s own economics standards consistently teach the importance of prices, profits, competition, incentives and property rights, while one of the state’s leading candidates for governor campaigns without admitting or even seeming to understand their value.

Consumer debt owed by Wisconsinites reached $49,210 per person in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Wisconsinites’ household debt, on average, is equal to 116% of their annual household income, recent data from the Federal Reserve shows.

Adjusting for inflation shows a Wisconsin manufacturing sector that has only held even for a decade, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

A growing number of Wisconsin communities are choosing to act against considerable economic interest and sit out the data center revolution.

Economic freedom is a fundamental animating idea of the republic that people should be free to work, build, hire, save, invest, trade and make their own economic choices without unnecessary interference from government.

Geography matters for what’s called “latency,” the small but often important amount of time it takes signals to travel from a user to whatever data center holds the information he’s using.

The solution to problems left by grocery store closures in Milwaukee may include a civil-society option such as a food co-op, observers say.

Think of the failure of the $1.8 billion tax-and-spending deal between Gov. Tony Evers and the Legislature as a second chance at better policy.

Wisconsin and Ontario are both manufacturing centers with similar economic strengths and vulnerabilities. The Badger State should learn from Ontario’s mistakes.

Subjecting big development proposals to popular vote risks killing statewide economic growth, observers say in the wake of a successful effort by Port Washington data center opponents to give citizens the ability to nix the future use of a key financing tool.

From 2011 to 2024, Wisconsin counties beat their Illinois counterparts 103 percent to 68 percent in private-sector economic output.

Wisconsin’s ranks higher in labor market freedom than it has been at almost any point since the 1980s, according to the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America Index.

Evidence from border counties indicates increased economic freedom encourages prosperity for Wisconsin residents.

The most recent Marquette Law School poll shows public opinion turning against data centers.

The law, passed in 2023, decrees that venues rented for private events at which the people holding the party bring their own alcohol can host only six such events a year, and only one a month — unless they prohibit bring-your-own drinks and instead get a liquor license like a tavern. Those are subject to strict quotas. Town board can simply refuse.

While down from pandemic era highs set in 2022, the average FoodShare benefits per Wisconsin household remain well above the pre-pandemic high water mark, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Policymakers are scrambling for solutions as Wisconsin property tax burdens continue to rise. As homeowners clamor for relief, Gov. Tony Evers (D) has proposed using $1.3 billion from the state’s surplus to buy down property tax bills. Unfortunately, the proposal does nothing to address the structural drivers of high (and rising) property taxes and, if anything, puts more pressure on them in the future. His proposal commits the state to subsidies that shift burdens rather than alleviate them.

Impacts are minimal in comparison to what might have occurred Seldom if ever conceded by many critics of the planned $15 billion 672-acre data center under way in…