The recent election in Wisconsin got me thinking about the opportunities to change the direction in the country that should be plain as day, but are somehow missed due to busy lives, attentions being diverted elsewhere and for all too many, absolute ignorance. What occurred in Wisconsin was a simple exercise to re-affirm freedom and […]
We’re more than seven months through the current fiscal year. Is anything really changing after the massive increases in federal spending over the past few years? Unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, the answer is no. Keep in mind that federal outlays from 2007 to 2011 jumped by 32 percent — from $2.73 trillion to $3.6 trillion. Due […]
Although the presidential campaign is increasingly clogging the nation’s news outlets with partisan tit for tat, there’s a nasty political struggle in Europe these days that should be getting equal air time for it could affect Americans’ lives even more than November’s election results. Across the Atlantic, some nations are facing bankruptcy. Unemployment is rising, […]
North Avenue once served as one of the busiest thoroughfares in Grand Junction and one of the busiest business districts in the city. So it’s disconcerting to those with long-term perspectives to see some of the changes that have occurred over the years: the businesses that have closed or relocated and the rundown and outdated […]
Woody Walcher, that is. If you’re anything like me, there are just some things you see or hear that rub you the wrong way immediately. And then they stick in your craw, enhanced by their repetition. Such is the case with Woody’s latest set of campaign radio ads that now seem as if they’ve been […]
The IRS needs money. It’s struggling to get by on about $12 billion a year, an agency official told Congress, warning that insufficient funding prevents adequate enforcement. The result is a $400 billion “tax gap” caused by some taxpayers under-reporting what they owe. Washington’s solution? Give revenuers more money. But a better use of […]
A couple of news stories caught my eye in the past week. In Chicago, the city council is looking at plans that would charge 15 to 35 cents in tax on sugary drinks. It’s estimated Chicagoans drink more than 100 million gallons of such drinks each year and consumption would generate almost $130 million in […]
Economists have a pesky way of “buting” into what are otherwise encouraging forecasts. This trend or that statistic signals growth … BUT yet another trend or a different statistic could lead to slowing. Economists have no difficulty whatsoever in viewing the glass as both half full and half empty. Perhaps it’s a sign of these […]
It’s hard to be both an entrepreneur and pessimist. Entrepreneurship really requires optimism. Of course, that optimism must be rooted in reality. Consequently, it’s been tough to be an entrepreneur in recent years, not to mention an economist for a small business advocacy group. After all, you long to remain optimistic about the economy, but […]
After four-plus years of a deep recession and poor recovery, there are those who can become excited when the economy merely muddles along at a below-average rate of growth. That seems to be the case with some in their reaction to the recent release of the Federal Reserve Beige Book. The information gathered from the […]