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Annual Massachusetts Outmigration Hits 39,000, Up 1,100% Over The Last Decade: BU StudyApril 24, 2024 - 1:00 pm
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Superior Court Judge Invalidates “Equity Theft” Law as UnconstitutionalApril 23, 2024 - 1:04 pm
Tax Man Confounded: Why High Rates Haven’t Yielded Higher RevenueApril 23, 2024 - 12:58 pm
Massachusetts’ Workforce Growing Older and More Diverse, Remains Highly EducatedApril 18, 2024 - 9:26 am
Johns Hopkins’ Ashley Berner on Educational Pluralism & DemocracyApril 17, 2024 - 2:53 pm
Why the secrecy? Pioneer Calls for Open Meetings Dealing with Steward’s Impact on Patient Care.April 16, 2024 - 1:59 pm
Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free MarketsApril 16, 2024 - 12:34 pm
39th U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky for National Poetry MonthApril 10, 2024 - 12:16 pm
A Practically 100% Guaranteed Free RideApril 9, 2024 - 1:21 pm
Is Steve Grossman That Intimidating?
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byOur state will have two downballot constitutional races this year, for Treasurer and Auditor. The Auditor’s race is attracting candidates — Guy Glodis (just today!), Suzanne Bump, and perhaps one or two more for the Democrats, Mary Connaughton for the Republicans, and Kemal Jain for the Independents. Meanwhile, Steve Grossman is hanging out there all alone on the Treasurer’s ballot. Are the promise of deep pockets and the whispers of inevitability really stopping others from running? Ask Governor Reilly and Senator Coakley how that worked out. Its not as if Grossman’s 2002 Gubernatorial candidacy was a juggernaut. (Nothing personal against Grossman, I just want a competitive race.) One challenger has already dropped out and another (Boston City Councillor Steven Murphy) […]
Would you take both sides of the deal?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byOne of my secret vices is an addiction to sports radio. And a regular feature of that genre is mindless trade talk — “We should trade David Ortiz and a coupla prospects for Hanley Ramirez/Albert Pujols….” Of course, if you consider the other party’s point of view, that’s a preposterous idea. With this in mind, we examine the comments of Lowell School Superintendent Chris Scott. To provide some context, there are discussions in Lowell about what to do with the students in a charter school up there that is facing the possible loss of its charter. From their trade group web site, it appears that Superintendents don’t like the Charter school funding formula which they view as sending money out […]
Richard M. Freeland Delivers the Goods
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe Board of Higher Ed staff has just put out a recommendation that the board approve the UMASS law school. The document hardly qualifies as analysis, as its largely a cut and paste job of the original UMASS application. Here’s my favorite passage: staff finds that the proposed University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Juris Doctor meets review criteria and that the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth will be able to start and operate a law school that can achieve ABA accreditation in a reasonable timeframe. This is predicated on attainment of enrollment goals [Emphasis added] Well, of course, and my getting rich is predicated on me making a lot of money. That doesn’t mean its going to happen. One would hope that […]
Gavin to Gavin
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byRobert Gavin of the Globe covered our new report Failure to Thrive underscoring the collapse in firm size and the failed policy focus the state has had for 20+ years on relocating firms to Massachusetts. I hope Kofi Jones (spokeswoman for the state’s economic development office) didn’t miss the point. Yes, Gov. Patrick, and all the Governors before him for the last quarter century, have “support[ed] and retain[ed] home-grown businesses and spurr[ed] innovation in Massachusetts.’’ But most of it has been summits (here insert “regional competitiveness councils”) and talk — and, again, not just this Governor. Two takeaways: (1) Governors have long spent way too much energy picking winners and losers (biotech tax credits, film tax credits, etc.) and paid […]
Flatline
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /by Steve PoftakIn 2001, the US economy went through a recession. From 2002 – 2007, the US economy created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Unfortunately, Massachusetts did not share in this growth, losing close to 440,000 jobs during that period. Coming out of this recession, shouldn’t we try to figure out how to increase the number of jobs in this state? To do that, Pioneer is looking backwards at the last eighteen years to try and figure out how jobs were created and lost, and to extract lessons for the future. Our first paper, Failure to Thrive, examines the drivers of job creation and job loss over the 18 year period from 1990 to 2007. I invite you to give the paper […]