Virginia has been a leader in economic growth over the past five yearswhile many other states have yet to experience significant growth. So why isit that Virginia does so well while other states continue to struggle? The latestedition of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s “Rich States, PoorStates,” uses census data...
By Leonard Gilroy and Baruch Feigenbaum Hampton Roads area officials seem bent on delaying or cancelling the proposed public-private partnership (PPP) for the $2.1 billion Midtown Tunnel expansion over concerns about new tolls, preferring instead to ask state and regional leaders to shake a nonexistent money tree for transportation cash....
Virginia’s economic developers expect a wave of manufacturing and logistical investment when the Panama Canal expansion is complete. Opportunities this big, they say, come along only once in a generation. New mega-industrial parks and a proposed $1.8 billion highway could help create a world-class economic development asset in an unlikely...
The revised data can show certain sectors of the economy are doing better – orworse – than initially thought. That’s true for the latest revisions of regional and statewide employment figures.If you thought the Richmond region was performing better than the numbers hadshowed, you were right. In fact, employment in...
(Federally proposed regulations could well undermine the rationale behind funding of what the taxpayers understand is transit. Since many in Virginia are committed to transit, this article is important to our future transportation needs. Bob Poole’s Surface Transportation Innovations is a monthly newsletter published by the Reason Foundation. ) A...
(Fracking is not a big issue here in Virginia, but it is an important piece of the energy independence that our Governor and others want to see our nation pursue. This article is important because it shows the opposition to energy development from “environmental” groups.) The Sierra Club and...
In his book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in economics Daniel Kahneman describes the phenomena of “loss aversion” and “reference points.” These deeply embedded cognitive quirks, which had survival value for hunter-gatherers, pose dilemmas for politicians in complex modern societies who try to change the status...
This article was originally published in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s policy blog, the AmericanLegislator (www.americanlegislator.com). A Gallup Poll released in February found that nearly half of small business owners pointed to potential healthcare costs (48 percent) as a reason for not hiring new employees. Even though 23 percent of...
When President Obama took office, regular gasoline cost $1.85 a gallon. Today it is $4.00 per gallon in many cities, and some analysts predict it could reach $5.00 or more this summer. Filling your tank could soon slam you for $75-$90. Winter was warm. Our economy remains weak. People are...
(Publisher’s Note: Congestion relief should be the top priority in any transportation plan. Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads are our most congested parts of the state and where the highest concentrations of current and future jobs are located. This article from transportation expert Bob Poole of the Reason Foundation sheds...
