kmbrown's Archive
Santa Fe Sore Thumb
The New Mexico state legislature wisely rejected the proposed increase in the statewide minimum wage. As a result, Santa Fe–with its own substantial increase–will stick out like a sore thumb.
Any business that wants to locate in New Mexico will surely avoid Santa Fe. Even those that need to be located right in Santa [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Decidedly New Mexican
Clunk! Clunk! Clunk! Goes the Trolley
Albuquerque Mayor Chavez wants to install streetcars between Old Town and Knob Hill. I don’t know why. Here are a few reasons why not:
1. Construction costs would be high and streets would be torn up for months. Whatever the estimated cost, the actual cost would be far higher.
2. Low benefit-cost ratio. [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Decidedly New Mexican
Spaceport Fiasco in the Making?
The Governor is pushing a massive subsidy to establlish a spaceport in New Mexico. Like the train to nowhere, it is a venture with little likelihood of success and a certainty of draining the state’s taxpayers for its entire life.
Do we really believe that there is a huge demand for suborbital flights that cost [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Uncategorized
Can’t Someone Stop the Train to Nowhere?
By now it has become obvious that the planned “communter” train between Belen and Bernalillo makes no economic sense. Yet the legislature continues to debate this monstrocity. Can’t anyone step up and introduce a bill to put the train out of its misery?
It’s bad in so many ways:
–The cost will greatly exceed revenues.
–Ridership [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Decidedly New Mexican
Is Business Doing the Right Thing?
The Albuquerque business community has mobilized to oppose the “living wage” measure that would impose a $7.50 an hour minimum wage. So far, their main argument against it is the bothersome clause that would give access to businesses to “inform employees of their rights.”
Clearly this is a bad feature of the ballot initiative, but [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Economics in Focus
Living Wage Bad in So Many Ways
You’ve probably noticed tha little yellow box on the home page of this website. It’s a quote from Henry Hazlitt that cites his “economics in one lesson” principle: The art of econmics is to look past the primary effect of some action to all of the good and bad effects that follow. [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Economic Freedom
Subsidies for drunks?
New Mexico now has a law requiring ignition interlocks on the cars of convicted drunk drivers. (An interlock is a device that uses a breathalizer to estimate the driver’s blood alcohol content and then shuts down the ignition if the driver flunks the test.)
These devices cost more than $500–not cheap. So here’s my [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Economic Freedom
Tax Relief by Mistake
Does ignorance of basic economics ever do any good? Maybe so.
When New Mexico repealed its gross receipts tax on groceries, it raised the tax on nearly every other good and service. It attempted to calculate this rate increase to exactly offset the revenue loss from grocery tax relief.
However, the state’s “economists” failed to [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Economics in Focus
Women’s Work
A federal judge has ruled that a sex-discrimination suit against Wal-Mart Stores can proceed as a class action, which could lead to a huge loss for the megastore. Up to 1.6 million women could join the class action, and at a few thousand apiece it could cost Wal-Mart billions.
Baltimore trial lawyer Peter Angelos made [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Errors Elsewhere
Reel Money: Should Taxpayers Finance Movies?
The State Investment Council has just agreed to lend $7.5 million at zero interest for three years to finance the production of a movie to be filmed in New Mexico. The film will tell the inspiring story of a man and his grandson who drift into Mexico and both fall in love with the [...]
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Economic Freedom
