GUEST COMMENTARY: The ethical case for right-to-work

Suppose a bare majority of the eateries in your town forces all the others into a dues-imposing “restaurant association” that fixes prices, hours and terms of service for all of them.

GUEST COMMENTARY: 'Occupiers,' Tea Party have point about Fed

On Dec. 5, Charles Evans, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, was the keynote speaker at the annual Indiana Economic Outlook sponsored by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University in Muncie. Rumor had it that "Occupy Muncie" activists would …

GUEST COMMENTARY: Absence of property rights provokes bad behavior

When I was 12 years old, the youths of First Christian Church had a picnic at Honor Heights Park in Muskogee, Okla. The good ladies of the church brought loads of potato salad, baked beans and coleslaw, but every child knew the real action was in the sack lunch mom had packed with their favo…

GUEST COMMENTARY: Qualms about swimming in federal funding

In my hometown of Muncie, a group of local citizens wants a public swimming pool that is in disrepair expanded into a full-fledged water park complex.

Mixed emotions on economics of earmarks

Congressman Mike Pence's refusal to earmark federal transportation funds for specific projects related to Ball State University has been criticized, not surprisingly, by many in my university community.

Markets and gas prices? I told you so $1.80 ago

I love saying I told you so. But setting aside my sinful pride, I hope the turmoil in the retail gasoline market does teach all of us in Indiana at least one simple yet profound lesson: Gasoline prices follow oil prices.

Deregulation can be economic development lure

There's no free lunch, but deregulation is as close as you get.

Free market eventually levels supply and demand

It is inevitable. As soon as Indiana gasoline prices rise, the protest begins: "Big oil interests are ripping us off."

Don't get your hopes up before Nov. 7 election

Contrary to almost everything you are reading or hearing, what will happen less than two weeks from now in polling places throughout Indiana is not designed to fine-tune and perfect society. The Nov. 7 elections are better understood as a kind of release valve that prevents the boiler from blowing.

Intelligent design's irony doesn't escape me

Over the past 50 years, individual rights have been supplemented and in some case supplanted by group rights. The whole notion of group rights is based on the premise that certain groups are victims of social oppression.

State shouldn't try to enforce healthy behavior

What is the proper job of Indiana state government?

Workers' pay isn't a valid part of economic analysis

Public relations professionals, especially those working for government subsidized operations continually miss an important economic point.

Curriculum in college needs to lead to 'Aha!'

In an age when universities often are portrayed as bastions of the irrelevant, the politically correct and the obscure, does the curriculum of higher education need a total makeover to respond to contemporary challenges?