When the Wyoming Business Council proposes a handout for a private business, the focus is on the positive—jobs, economic diversification, the flag and apple pie. When it brings these proposals before the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB), the costs of these handouts—wasted resources, cronyism and the damage to unsubsidized competition—go unmen...

The 2015 legislative session created a number of measures that put taxpayers into the risky business of supporting some private companies. It also, in contrast, set up the Minerals Tax Task Force that could turn this corporate welfare trend around. The job of the task force is to study and make recommendations for a fair, viable and simplified syst...

I have often pointed to the errors, systemic and others, in the Wyoming economy. I have repeatedly explained the false sense of job security that comes with a large share of the work force on tax-funded jobs. I have also noted how our largely mono-industrial economy was a big factor in giving Wyoming the nation's slowest private sector growth durin...

In 1957, Ford Motor Company rolled out its new brand called Edsel. The ambition for the new brand was to help Ford outgrow General Motors. Reality, though, was different: after three years of disastrous sales Ford shut down the Edsel division. The motive for the decision is obvious: Edsel was losing enormous amounts of money. The verdict of the fre...