Earlier today Sean pointed out the growing income inequality in the U.S. What I would like to do is touch on how this has played out in the Mountain State. The graph below tells the story. From 1974 to 1977, growth in median (four-person) household incomes - or the households in the middle of the…
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Growing income inequality was the topic of the week as the CBO released a new report showing the incomes of the wealthiest 1% have tripled since 1979, with little to show for everyone else. Highlights include:Between 1979 and 2007, income grew by: 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households, 65 percent for the next 19…
Richard Caldwell, a Wheeling native and the vice president for the Appalachian region of Audubon Engineering, said Charleston was chosen because of the availability of skilled and experienced workers. Availability of the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserve also was a contributing factor in the decision to come to West Virginia, he said. Last week, we issued a policy memo…
On Sunday, the NYTimes ran an insightful and well written op-ed by Seamus McGraw on his regrets of leasing his Pennsylvania land to a natural gas company. McGraw, who is the author of 'The End of Country", summed up his thoughts here: Standing there in what used to be our pasture on that light summer night, watching…
Today's Daily Mail reports on a study from the Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research, warning that West Virginia's high tax burden on the natural gas industry could hurt the development of the natural gas industry. Reading carefully, one may notice a lot of "maybes" "mights" and "coulds" in the report's conclusions. Let's take a closer look,…
Over the years, the Center has written tirelessly about the evangelical belief many media pundits, policymakers, and lobbyists have about the magic of tax cuts. In particular, the belief about tax cuts "paying for themselves." There is zero - I repeat - zero empirical evidence that tax cuts generate so much economic activity that revenues…
Last year, I did a couple of posts about rising income inequality and the struggles of the middle class. Today, I want to look at a similar topic, how much of the past few decade's economic growth has been felt by the middle class. I'll do this by comparing different measures of economic growth with…
This past Friday we talked about the illusions that some people have about the role of government in the "free market." Another wrinkle in the free market mythology is how the federal government supports what Alexander Hamilton called "infant industries" with direct investments, subsidies and tariffs. This is especially true when it comes to the…
The State Journal published a piece by former WV Delegate Pat McGeehan where he says that the only way to create jobs in the Mountain State is "f Government Gets out of the Way." He lists the usual conservative/libertarian ideas of less regulation, protect private property, abolish the income tax, and decentralize government. As my…