Posts Tagged ‘income growth’
Misplaced Faith in Tax Cuts
Whatever the problem, a tax cut will fix it. And under no circumstances ever increase taxes. So goes the conventional conservative mantra. New research from two Oklahoma State University economists (Rickman and Wang, 2018) finds that reality is far more nuanced than this rigid perspective suggests. Tax cuts can promote economic growth—or they can harm…
Read MoreWisconsin Grows Poorer, More Unequal Relative to Minnesota
Minnesota’s median income grew faster than the national average over the past decade, as noted in part 1 of this series. And while Minnesota income inequality has increased, it has increased less rapidly than the national average. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, median income growth fell short of the U.S. growth rate and income inequality increased at…
Read MoreMinnesota vs. U.S. Income Trends Since the Great Recession
When it comes to income trends in Minnesota, we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that income growth in Minnesota has surpassed the national average over the last decade, both in aggregate and within every income group. The bad news is that income inequality has increased over this period,…
Read MoreDebunking Minnesota Economic and Fiscal Policy Myths
Minnesota is a land of 10,000 lakes and almost as many misconceptions about the size of government, growth in public revenue and expenditures, and performance of the state’s economy. Some of these mistaken beliefs are the result of an innocent misreading of the data, while others are the product of deliberate disinformation campaigns. The following…
Read MoreConservative Spending Claims Don’t Add Up
A recent chart from the Republican Party of Minnesota, reproduced below, purports to show that Minnesota’s general fund budget is growing about 12 percent faster than the state’s economy and about 25 percent faster than the rate of inflation from 2012 to 2017. The information in that graph is, however, generally inaccurate. The Republican Party…
Read MoreMinnesota Re-Illustrated: Correcting Economic Disinformation
Last week, the conservative Tax Foundation and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce released a report entitled, Minnesota Illustrated: A Visual Guide to Taxes & the Economy. Much of the information in the report is presented in such a way so as to give the impression that Minnesota is facing looming economic peril because it is…
Read More