The Gathering Storm by John Stapleford           Recent Federal data reveals that Delaware now ranks 5 th among all the states in the percent of births to unmarried mothers. Nearly 46% of Delaware births during 2006 were to unwed mothers, including 32% of births among whites, 62% among Hispanic and 72% among blacks. This portends trouble down the road.          Despite the Murphy Brown myth, the research literature is clear. While not inevitable, children raised in single-pa

Have a Coke and a Tax   by Veronique de Rugy Published at Reason.com , 12/14/09 "With the federal deficit reaching $1.4 trillion and most state budgets deep in the red, policy makers are desperately searching for new sources of revenue that the tapped-out American public might support. They think they’ve found one at the corner store: a tax on carbonated beverages. Charging a few more cents for a soft drink, legislators claim, will not only refresh exhausted state and federal

Individual Liberty vs. Government Authority By Richard Spencer, Ph.D.     While teaching graduate level Economics in Delaware during the 90s, I used The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayekas a required secondary reading. Hayek was the 1974 Nobel Prize winner in Economics and a proponent of the Austrian school that free markets enhance mankind’s liberty. Every week my students were to write a one-page summary of each chapter, and to report about personal discussions they had with ot

The Time is Now to make Delaware a Right to Work State   It happens like clockwork. A bill to make Delaware a right to work state has been introduced regularly in recent years.   Given the economic climate, the need for jobs, and the competitive nature of finding and incubating new and existing businesses, the time is right for Delaware to seriously consider becoming a right to work state.   The closest right to work legislation has come to becoming law in Delaware in recent

How does Delaware compare to other mid-Atlantic states in various economic indicators?

When graduating high school students apply for college, they spend a great deal of time researching where they would like to go and deciding where to apply. They research schools, visit campuses and give serious consideration to factors such as cost, social environment, location, academics, etc… They do this BEFORE applications are due. In looking ahead to 2010, it would be wise for Delaware policymakers to act now through research and planning so that they can make sound dec

Delaware is very close to if not already beyond the point of no return regarding manufacturing, financial and agricultural jobs.  It is almost entirely the fault of the General Assembly, the Governor’s cabinet and the Governor. (The greater Northeast also has the same anti-manufacturing viewpoint and has contributed to the job losses.)  I was part of this loss of jobs.  My employer shut down operations at a manufacturing facility November 14, 2005 due to high costs (electrici

Hausers Law demonstrates that taxpyers will only fork over so much of their income to government. Data shows that is true in Delaware as well. If legislators want to grow state revenue, they must growth the economy first.

It is time for Delaware to act on sentencing reform.

The simple point is: we need to rethink how we pursue government spending and re-prioritize the numbers we use so that we can start anew. In doing so, remember the following from economist John Maynard Keynes:   “Nor should the argument seem strange that taxation may be so high as to defeat its object, and that, given sufficient time to gather the fruits, a reduction of taxation will run a better chance than an increase of balancing the budget. For to take the opposite view t