New Study: Stimulus Spending No Cure for Louisiana’s Unemployment

By Fergus Hodgson
10/01/2010
U.S. unemployment marches on as Mercatus Center finds no relationship between stimulus spending and employment While the latest claim from the White House is that the Recovery Act has generated or saved 3.6 million jobs, recent research fails to find a connection between stimulus projects and unemployment. In the case of Louisiana, the unemployment rate...

TAGS: deficits, federal government, Mercatus Center, spending, Unemployment

State Budget Crises: Where to Go from Here

By Fergus Hodgson
09/27/2010
Spending beyond inflation and population growth accounts for budget gaps By Daniel M. Rothschild It didn’t have to be this way, with states slashing budgets, cutting services, hiking taxes and fees, all while peering into the crevasse of fiscal meltdown. That’s the conclusion of a new paper by Matthew Mitchell, an economist at the Mercatus...

TAGS: Daniel Rothschild, Mercatus Center, State Spending

Government Boost to Small Business Could do More Harm than Good

By Fergus Hodgson
09/17/2010
Mercatus scholar warns that discrimination over business size lacks economic justification By Daniel M. Rothschild With the Senate set to create a $30 billion fund for small business lending and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) praising small businesses as “the engine of job creation,” elected officials and their challengers of both parties are scrambling...

TAGS: Daniel Rothschild, employment, Mercatus Center, small business

Study Finds Federal Grants Lead to Increased State Taxes

By Fergus Hodgson
09/10/2010
Dependence on federal aid places state revenue in precarious position By Daniel M. Rothschild With federal grants to states increasing by 73 percent over the last decade and totaling $654 billion in 2010, governors and legislatures are grateful for federal assistance in plugging budget gaps. They may rethink their decisions in the coming years; however,...

TAGS: Daniel Rothschild, federal aid, Mercatus Center, Taxes