Category: Business, The Economy and The Markets
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Tortal Recall
Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails: Uh…lawyers?
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A Little Soggy
Governor Klink, Melissa Hortman and the Urban DFL clacque squandered a $19 billion surplus paying off the DFL’s special interests, and all we got was a broken dam. Unexpectedly? No. Not a bit. The century-old Rapidan Dam on the Blue Earth River – a tributary to the Minnesota, and eventually the Mississippi – has been…
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Decay
Minnesota’s gross domestic product growth – which has long run far ahead of national averages – isn’t anymore: I’ve been observing this for a while now – when I decided to move to Minnesota, the state was simultaneously a mecca of opportunity in the Midwest, a place that Fodor Travel Guides called “The Athens of…
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The Urban Doom Loop
As we watch the back an forth between dismal demographic news and media pollyannaism in Minneapolis, it’s worth looking at other cities that are having similar post-pandemic problems. Which is most of Blue Urban America, to be honest – there aren’t many cities outside Florida, Texas, the Carolinas and Tennessee doing well these days –…
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The Chicanes Of Leftist Economics
If the Democrat party’s messaging machine were targeted at people who did critical thinking, I’d have a little sympathy for them. They’d have to navigate a pretty tight logical hairpin turn. To wit: they’d have to supervise the gaslighting of the people to believe the “experts” and not their lying eyes about the economy: …and…
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America’s Abusive Spouse
Notice how many Democrats and media people (ptr) are gaslighting working Americans about the economy lately? The Dow Jones and the level of GDP is nice and all, but inflation is rising faster than buying power, and is going to get worse before it gets better, if it gets better.
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Shut Up And Make The Biscuits, Jeb
Joe Doakes, no longer from Como Park, emails: Seems that Cracker Barrel is in financial trouble after inviting restaurant patrons to celebrate Gay Pride. Go to https://ace.mu.nu/ and scroll down to “The Morning Rant: Cracker Barrel Went Woke and Now It’s Going Broke” for a nice recap. Sometimes I wonder if every big company is working from…
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We’ve Got Good News And Bad News
The good news: Minnesota’s new paid family leave law will cost 25% more than originally budgeted: Minnesota’s new paid family and medical leave program will launch in 2026 with a 25% higher payroll tax than originally anticipated when the bill was passed last session, an assistant commissioner with the Department of Employment and Economic Development…
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Next Time Governor Klink Yaps About The Economy
Once the colonoscopy removes all that smoke the DFL and media have been blowing into your distal colon, the news about Minnesota’s business climate just ain’t good: Published last week, Chief Executive’s list of 2024 Best & Worst States for Business ranked Minnesota near the bottom at No. 41. The result isn’t much different from…
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Fishy
Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails: From Powerline: Something strange has been happening with jobless claims numbers lately Calling the state of the U.S. jobs market these days stable seems like an understatement considering the latest data coming out of the Labor Department. That’s because most of the past several weeks have shown that…
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Oops
So – why did the ever-so-decisive Minneapolis City Council delay its “minimum wage” hike against Uber and Lyft to July? To help the soon-to-be-unemployed drivers? To give the companies a reasonable chance to adjust? HAH. Naïve peasant! It’s to save the DFL from itself! The Minneapolis City Council, in voting unanimously on Thursday to delay…
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Twenty Reporters Walk Into A Bar, Over And Over And Over…
As we noted yesterday, the sports bar “A Bar Of Their Own” – which opened on March 1 to paeons of praise and wall-to-wall coverage from local media – has a unique-ish marketing hook; the TVs are all tuned to womens sports. That’s all well and good. I support anyone and everyone bringing a new…
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The “Class Privilege” Combo Plate
In California, fast-food restaurants must now pay $20/hour. Newsom has celebrated this as a major achievement. But Newsom’s restaurant group can, and does, hire people for much, much less. PlumpJack Cafe in Olympic Valley – which is among a group of eateries owned by a company Newsom founded in 1992 – is hiring a part-time…
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Preview: Twenty Reporters Walk Into A Bar, Over And Over And Over…
Perhaps you’ve heard – there’s a sports bar in Minneapolis that focuses on women’s sports. And heard. And heard. And heard some more. Now, don’t get me wrong – I wish “A Bar Of Their Own” all the best. I wish pretty much any private-sector business kills it in the market; I’m with pretty much…
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The Thing That Wouldn’t Die
A friend of the blog emails: I was always afraid the activists had too much control, [the FOB’s spouse] was confident that the state wouldn’t do something this stupid. But, it is getting talked about in mainstream media now. It’s probably really going to happen, isn’t it? The FOB is talking about the “Plan” being…
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They’ll Never Do Lunch In DC Again
One of the big quasi-empirical drivers to “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in the business world was a McKinsey consulting study from almost ten years ago, whose results claimed that diversity was strength, not just for virtue-signaling purposes, but in bottom line terms. If it seemed like a stretch – it was. A new study…
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Journalisming, 2024
“A Bar Of Their Own” has apparently had a good first month, according to this cheerleading press release. Since its inception, enthusiasm has only grown for the tavern with the radical concept of playing only women’s sports on its multiple TVs. The idea was overwhelmingly embraced, from a successful crowdfunding campaign to an opening day…
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Ghost Of Minneapolis Future
What’s the term all the urbanist fanboys are using these days? Oh, yeah – “vibrant”. Here’s another example of blue city “vibrancy”, this time from San Francisco: Any bets as to whether the Minneapolis City Council will consider “desolation” a bug, or a counter-capitalist feature?
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Politicians Field Guide: The Moderate In The Race
Elon Musk illustrated the truth for many in America’s political “middle”: I’m not in “the middle”, by any means. I used to call myself “center right”, but these days I am proud to call myself a Paleocon, from the “let’s get back to the Sharon Statement” school of paleoconning. Trump from 2016 to 2020 governed…
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Underpromise, Overdeliver…
“A Bar Of Their Own” – a bar devoted to women’s sports – opens tomorrow in Minneapolis. I wish them, and just about any new business trying to make a go of it, all the best. There are some who’ve mocked the concept. I don’t – anyone who tries to contribute more growth and wealth…
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The Thing About Any Good Or Service, Is That…
…if it’s one that anyone wants, people pay you to do it. For example, the one type of recycling that’s economically viable is recycling metal. There’s a demand – it’s easier and cheaper to melt and re-use metal, especially aluminum, than to mine and refine it from raw ore. So companies pay for metal. They…
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Pretty Vacant
Remember this episode – one of the events boosters of Downtown Minneapolis have hung their hat on as a symbol of their commitment and capability? It’s the 1999 move of the historic Schubert Theater [1] – a $14 million move that was part of a $42 million (in 1999 dollars – call it about $73…
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The Usual Suspects
Grand Avenue in Saint Paul. It was gentrified well over forty years ago – before the term really existed. It’s been one of Saint Paul’s most durable commercial corridors since as long as I’ve lived here, and then some. And it’s been having trouble lately. Well, parts of it have. We’re told that some parts…
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Fact-Check
The Strib ran this story: Fact-Check: Governors Flanagan and Klink tell us that Minnesota’s…er, “One Minnesota’s” economy has never been better. And Brandonomics, we are constantly told, is breaking records. So, clearly, the myth is busted.