by admin | Aug 29, 2014 | Archive
By sbeaulier77 If Britain joined the US, its residents would be the second poorest of the 51 states. Their inflation-adjusted living standards ($36,202 per person) give new meaning to the oft-used (in Alabama) phrase, “better than Mississippi,” because...
by admin | Aug 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Consider a few basic questions about investing (possible answers in bold): (1) Suppose you had $1,000 in savings and the interest rate was 4% per year. After 3 years of leaving the money untouched, how much do you think you have… Source:...
by admin | Aug 15, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 If there were ever a time for throwing cumbersome rules and regulations out the window, it’s when someone’s life is on the line because of those rules. The Ebola deaths in West Africa, which are now in excess of 1,000,… Source:...
by admin | Aug 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Louis Brandeis once said, “I abhor averages.” After reading Average Is Over (Dutton Press) by Tyler Cowen of George Mason University, I’d concur with Brandeis: if the average American’s future is anywhere close to Cowen’s...
by admin | Aug 5, 2014 | Media, PR, Radio
Scott Beaulier discusses the ongoing efforts to remove the sales tax on food in Alabama....
by admin | Aug 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 100 years ago this week, Austria declared war on Serbia and World War I–the Great War, the war to end all wars–began. Of course, World War I, despite its enormity and large death toll, was not the war to end… Source:...
by admin | Jul 29, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 “If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven’t cut taxes enough.” (Milton Friedman) During the federal debt ceiling showdowns, ideas about spending cuts often came to a stalemate because Democrats insisted on offsetting...
by admin | Jul 21, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Alabama’s tax code is one of the most regressive in the country, which means middle-income, lower-income, and poor people contribute a far greater share of their income to state revenues than the wealthiest Alabamians. According to a 2013 study,...
by admin | Jul 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Thanks to our Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Parker Griffith, making it a campaign issue, there are few questions I’ve been asked more often in recent months than the question of “What do you think of a state lottery?” Griffith is...
by admin | Jul 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 A media-savvy friend of mine once told me that there’s no surer way to turn off readers than a chart or a presentation of data. He’s probably right, but here goes a post on basic pension arithmetic anyway…Example 1 You borrow…...
by admin | Jul 3, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Tomorrow we celebrate the 238th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, which was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. (John Adams, by the way, thought it would be July 2nd that Americans would celebrate as an “epoch day” in history...
by admin | Jun 26, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Defined benefit (DB) pension plans like Social Security and The Teachers’ Retirement System of Alabama (TRS) are designed to provide a promised set of benefits to participants. The benefits are based on factors that include a person’s age,...
by admin | Jun 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 The desire to help the poor is an understandable one. Almost all of us want to do so, and even those with the most negative views about the welfare state probably agree that there is a strong moral duty to help… Source:...
by admin | Jun 11, 2014 | Interview, Media, Video
Tonight…a wrap-up of this week’s primary elections, including the races for governor and legislative and congressional seats. Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard of Auburn discusses his win and what he calls the nastiest campaign he’s ever had to endure....
by admin | Jun 6, 2014 | Article, Weekly Column
President Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has done its best to hurt kids and inner-city minorities around the country. By attacking school choice and state-level experimentation in public education, the DOJ is making sure another generation of American...
by admin | Jun 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 President Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has done its best to hurt kids and inner-city minorities around the country. By attacking school choice and state-level experimentation in public education, the DOJ is making sure another generation of...
by admin | May 28, 2014 | Audio, Podcast, Radio
http://thedavidmadeirashow.com/shows/DMS485-3.mp3 Dr. Scott Beaulier, Chair of Economics & Finance and director of the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University, talks PA pension crisis. The Reagan Doctrine: “Peace Through Strength” The...
by admin | May 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 As the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) continue along denying we have a problem, other states keep passing us by. As Eileen Norcross noted in her work, Michigan reformed back in the 1990s, and the savings to taxpayers has been… Source:...
by admin | May 21, 2014 | Article, Weekly Column
By Scott Beaulier Originally posted on May 21, 2014 at 12:40 PM, updated May 21, 2014 at 12:54 PM Source: AL.com | Who’s really responsible? (Scott Beaulier) Our Johnson Center study, Pension Reform in Alabama: A Case for Economic Accounting, has sparked...
by admin | Apr 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Earlier this week, my colleague, Dan Smith, released the first chapter in an edited volume, Improving Lives in Alabama. Smith’s chapter focuses on the role occupational licenses and other labor market barriers play in holding back Alabamians from...
by admin | Apr 24, 2014 | Interview, Podcast, Radio
Listen Online Source: http://danmorrisshow.com/index.php/interact/podcast/2473-dan-morris-show-2014-04-23-hour-3
by admin | Apr 15, 2014 | Uncategorized
By sbeaulier77 Many researchers interested in extreme poverty (i.e., people living on less than $1.25 per day) are in agreement about the best way to help the world’s poorest people: Giving the poor cash is better than almost every other alternative. Yet,…...
by admin | Mar 11, 2014 | Audio, Interview, Media, Radio
Listen Online Source: http://theattackmachine.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/03-11-14-dale-jackson-talks-with-troy-universitys-scott-beaulier-on-the-real-impact-of-alabamas-medicaid-expansion/
by admin | Mar 6, 2014 | Interview, Video
Tonight…a rally to get lawmakers to restore $10 million in ASU funding that was set aside as a conditional appropriation. The House today passed a bill that would keep secret the manufacturers of lethal injection drugs used in AL executions. Troy University...
