Local Government | 2008 Archive

CHARLOTTE — In the last six years, Charlotte and other nearby local governments have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in sports and recreation-based economic development projects. Far from being a slam-dunk, the projects have badly underperformed versus expectations.

Unfortunately, many politicians have yet to grow out of the toddler phase when it comes to spotting and discarding spurious correlations.

CHARLOTTE — Less than six months after state and local officials announced up to $57 million in aid for Skybus, the new airline with an unusual business model went out of business.

RALEIGH — County commissioners in several North Carolina counties could avoid proposed sales tax increases for years by diverting money from existing revenue streams to high-priority county government functions, according to findings in new John Locke Foundation Regional Briefs.

The most familiar story of the need for extensive bank regulation depicts pre-Federal Reserve banking in the U.S. as chaotic, rife with uncertainty and bank failure. But that's not the story that a more complete history offers. In the regulation vs. deregulation debate, there are important instances of well-functioning free enterprise banking and market discipline. In the U.S., the best example is the Suffolk Clearinghouse system.