This article examines the effects of fuel prices on the Midwest economy. As a region that is still disproportionately reliant on manufacturing, the Midwest would be expected to feel the brunt of high energy costs. However, is this still the case, or has the impact been mitigated over time by the...

In the U.S., there are nearly 14 million state and local government workers and six million retirees who are owed more than $2.3 trillion dollars in eventual pension payouts by more than 2,000 different governments. The author discusses the current condition of state and local pension plans, as...

In works such as Glaeser (2011) and Porter (1995), prominent economists have suggested that metropolitan areas are the key to economic growth. In this article, we examine the economic development strategies and performance of the largest metropolitan areas in the five states of the Seventh...