Ideas in Development

Economic development is half policy and half practice - kind of an applied science and art that overlaps many other academic disciplines - urban and regional studies and planning, economics, geography, economic sociology, and economic history. It is an enigma, often crudely defined and full of contradictions.

Its fundamental definitions are contested. What is growth? What is development? How should its progress be measured? And what is progress? A lack of concord over definitions is usually taken as a sign of an intellectual discipline's scientific immaturity.

Continue reading "The Enigma That is Economic Development" »

Today’s rural communities in United States are very different from those in the past. No longer boasting a predominately agriculture economy, they are in many respects facing the same competitive challenges that other places do. Low-wage foreign competition, accelerating product cycles, and the application of information technologies throughout the economy will continue to generate lots of economic change, for the better and the worse. As will changing workforce demographics and the widespread adoption of the logistics and outsourcing techniques, demonstrated successfully by Wal-Mart and others.

Continue reading "Rethinking Rural Development Policy in the Light of Today's Realities" »

Louis Kelso was a visionary in the field of economics.  He developed/pioneered the idea of Binary Economics as a new way of understanding capital and its role in industrial production and the production of wealth, and was the originator of Employee Stock Ownership Plans.  He subscribed to a ‘non-conformist’ form of capitalism that believed in a capitalist society where ownership was widely distributed throughout society, and co-authored The Capitalist Manifesto with philosopher Mortimer Adler, which highlights many of his main economic theories.¹ 

Continue reading "Louis Kelso" »

Thesis 1: Economic development is not synonymous with business attraction strategies.

Economic development is not a single strategy, such as business attraction efforts or cutting high marginal income tax rates or earmarking more funds for in-state research and development. Instead, it should be regarded as a broader dynamic process that these initiatives may affect positively or negatively. To quote Kenneth Boulding: “Economic progress (or development) involves the discovery and implementation of better ways to address our wants.” Such a definition could be elaborated into a series of goal statements and relevant data indicators. So, economic development is not a collection of large capital projects, such as new plants and convention centers. It is an adaptation process, involving how smoothly, swiftly, profitably and humanely, a sub-national economy can adjust to changes in demography, technology, resource availability and costs, and competition from abroad and within the U.S.

Continue reading "Eleven Theses On Education And Economic Development" »

Edited by Stephanie Greenwood and with an introduction written by David Cay Johnston, author of a great exposé of the U.S. tax system, 10 Excellent Reasons Not to Hate Taxes is a much needed liberal manifesto.  Short and lucid articles provide the case for charging equitable and sufficient “dues” for this club to which we all belong: the U.S. of A.

Now, here are the reasons, absent evidence, rhetoric, or polemic:

Continue reading "10 Excellent Reasons not to Hate Taxes" »