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August 17 2025

Hicks Commentary: What Made Us Fumble Education Policy?

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks August 17, 2025 Indiana made a billion-dollar mistake based on a flawed jobs forecast a decade ago, and we’re still paying “...”

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August 11 2025

Hicks Commentary: Grim Recessionary Facts

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks August 10, 2025 In March, I predicted the U.S. economy would enter recession and in April I explained how Indiana would be esp “...”

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August 04 2025

Hicks Commentary: Some Easy (and Not So Easy) Spending Cuts for the Next Budget

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks August 3, 2025 The coming decade is almost certain to see Americans take more seriously our large national debt. I see this as “...”

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July 27 2025

Hicks Commentary: More Bad News about Hoosier College Attendance

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks July 27, 2025 The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has released the state’s go-to-college data for 2023, the most rec “...”

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July 20 2025

Hicks Commentary: It’s Stagflation, Not Inflation

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks July 20, 2025 The average American family will pay about $2,500 more this year because of tariffs. But unlike inflation, your “...”

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July 14 2025

Hicks Commentary: A Golden Age of Economic Columnists

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks July 13, 2025 I have the very good fortune to be living amid a veritable golden age of economic columnists. There is such an i “...”

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July 07 2025

Hicks Commentary: Churchill Was Right About Americans

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks July 6, 2025 Our nation was born in an epic struggle over the radical ideals of our founding—that (1) we each have value and “...”

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June 30 2025

Hicks Commentary: More Changes to Economic Development Policy Are Needed

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks June 29, 2025 Several weeks ago, I wrote that Hoosiers should offer Gov. Mike Braun grace in his efforts to reorient the Indiana “...”

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June 23 2025

Hicks Commentary: We Have a Healthy Middle Class

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks June 22, 2025 I’m often asked, “What has happened to the middle class?” The best answer I can think of puts the question “...”

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June 16 2025

Hicks Commentary: Economic Freedom Is Essential, but It Isn’t Just Taxes

This column was originally published on the Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research Weekly Commentary blog. By Michael J. Hicks June 15, 2025 Over the past few years, academic economists and think tanks have published studies on freedom that offer valuable “...”