Kansas City Homicide Rate May Be National Leader for 2025
A story in the November 20 issue of The Washington Post examines homicide rates in large cities across the United...
Waiting for Perception on Crime to Change Is Not a Winning Strategy for St. Louis
I’ve highlighted the progress St. Louis has made in reducing crime in recent blog posts. The improving data are positive...
Mission Impossible and Nuclear Energy: President Trump’s New Executive Orders
A version of the following commentary appeared in the Springfield News-Leader. While I will avoid any spoilers, the new movie,...
Let’s Grow Missouri, Literally
We often talk about growing Missouri in abstract ways. We want to grow the economy, grow the tax base, grow...
“Did You Get My Cheez Wiz, Boy?”
Early in the classic film The Blues Brothers, Elwood takes his recently paroled brother, Jake, back to his Chicago apartment....
Corruption Allegations: Disappointing but Hardly Surprising
A version of this commentary appeared in the St. Louis Business Journal. In 1977, the Chicago Sun Times newspaper bought...
Columbia Repeals Ban on Trash Roll Carts, Repeal of Ban on Dancing and Proms Is Next
Both Prohibition and the classic film Footloose (the original, obviously) teach us the lesson that banning popular things is generally...
EV Charging Stations Don’t Need Mandates to Succeed
Elected officials who want to put more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road face a Catch-22. Drivers won’t buy more...
Earnings Taxes and St. Louis’s Catch 1%.
A version of this commentary was published in the St. Louis Business Journal. As voters in the City of St. Louis...
St. Louis City’s Earnings Tax Is Not the Lowest in the Country
The earnings tax was one topic of conversation during a recent forum for St. Louis mayoral candidates. During the forum,...
Who’s Driving the Bus on School Openings?
Students and families are nearing the one-year mark of schooling in COVID times. For many, traversing this ever-shifting education landscape...
St. Louis Ranked in the Middle in Ease-of-Doing-Business Study
The St. Louis Business Journal recently published details of a report that placed St. Louis in the top ten “untapped...
Aquarium Project Repeats Familiar Mistakes
Local media in St. Louis is abuzz over the imminent completion of the Union Station renovation project. The St. Louis...
St. Louis’s Ridiculously High Sales Taxes
It is often claimed that Missouri is a low-tax state (which it is not), but it is painfully clear that...
It’s a Head-Scratcher
I just don’t get it. A recent article in The 74 describes how the vibrant charter school sector and strong...
Kansas City and St. Louis Battling National Trends
From costly bad bets subsidizing the development of Kansas City’s Power & Light District to promoting the St. Louis Ballpark...
Trump vs. Harley-and the World
In its own words, the Trump Organization is “the world’s only global luxury real estate super-brand,” with five- and six-star...
Cities May Actually Be the Culprit in Underfunding Schools
Education funding is a hot topic in several states, with lawsuits alleging that state governments are failing to meet their...
What I Saw at the TIF Hearing
Anyone who has been paying attention to the Show-Me Institute over the past few years knows that our analysts are...
Broadway Economics
The Broadway Inn is convenient for all the universities in Columbia, and its owner wants to build a $20 million...
