Browsing: Economy

Wisconsin’s economic output has been sluggish since the recovering from a pandemic-induced contraction, inflation-adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show.

Demand for legal cannabis products is elastic, so states must consider this fact when setting tax rates. If taxes are set too high, legalization will not deter users from exiting legacy illegal markets.

Data centers chug electricity like undergrads drink beer, and the advent of artificial intelligence — which uses, we’re told, about 10 times the electricity as conventional searches — makes power demand soar.

Wisconsin house prices are among the fastest growing in the country, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency. The Badger State experienced a 9.9% increase in the FHFA House Price Index between April 2023 and April 2024.

A basket of goods and services that would have cost $1,000 in January 2014 would now cost $1,304, according to the BLS’ consumer price index for the Midwest.

Sociologist Brad Wilcox is telling young people to marry because it will make them happier. “People who embrace the core values and virtues associated with marriage are more likely to flourish both in marriage and in life.”

The Social Development Commission, Wisconsin’s largest anti-poverty social services agency, abruptly closed its doors in late April after the latest in a series of scandals stretching back over more than 30 years.

Housing prices have escalated in the past decade, but where you live plays an important role in how much it skyrocketed. In Wisconsin, the median price of a home varies significantly from county to county.

What if Wisconsinites were told they couldn’t heat their houses by burning fossil fuels in a furnace, the way about 4 out of 5 Wisconsin homes do now? What would that cost us?

Free-market reforms are driving prosperity and fostering human flourishing in the Dairy State. This unmistakable trend is evident in state economic indicators from recent decades, a hopeful story that can instill pride in all Wisconsinites.

The population of Eau Claire County, now approximately 108,000, has grown almost 10% just since 2010. A little farther west, just across the St. Croix River from Minnesota, St. Croix County has grown 15%.

Wisconsin’s largest metropolis, Milwaukee, has been one of the nation’s largest urban areas for decades, but its comparative position has changed.

At the national level, recent studies show that small businesses are not contracting with the federal government as frequently as in the past. And those that do are becoming more concentrated in a handful of congressional districts around Washington, where rent seeking is the norm.

When Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s business chamber, last month put out the results of its semiannual survey of CEOs’ sentiments, the outlook was grim: 22% rated the Wisconsin economy as “strong.” Only 10% said the same of the national economy, with 28% calling it “weak.” That’s a gloomier number than the WMC found in summer 2020, amid lockdowns.

The Jones Act, protecting the American maritime industry and driving free trade champions crazy for more than 100 years, is both a boon and a bane to Wisconsin businesses, workers and consumers. 

A basket of groceries that would have cost $100 in January 2014 would now cost $127, according to the BLS’ consumer price index for “food at home” in the Midwest.

Wisconsinites who bake food at home for sale in their communities could find their incomes dramatically curtailed under legislation recently introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature.

Wisconsin has, in state Sen. Rob Hutton, a mad-eyed optimist, for the Brookfield Republican imagines that this is the time, after decades of trying, that Wisconsin could repeal its minimum markup law… He might be right.

It’s common to describe capitalism as “dog-eat-dog,” but entrepreneurs win by being more appealing to others, serving them better. That surely is something we all can celebrate, especially during the ramen-for-dinner pre-profit stage, when entrepreneurs could use some encouragement.

After Gov. Tony Evers announced last week he was diverting $36.6 million in federal emergency pandemic funds for, among other things, a soccer stadium, a sports center and a railroad museum, state Sen. Duey Stroebel tweeted, “I struggle to see how any of these projects relate to pandemic relief.”