Surprise! 'Pro-business' policies hurt state economic growth

[Damansarajaya]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-surprise-probusiness-20140506-column.html

As Menzie Chinn of the University of Wisconsin has now shown, the problem is that pro-business policies don't really contribute to economic growth. They just make the rich richer, which is not the same thing at all.


. . . .

does a high ALEC ranking translate into high growth? That's the question Chinn asked. He started by measuring private nonfarm job growth in four states--California, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Minnesota--dating to January 2011, when all four got new governors. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Sam Brownback of Kansas were extremely ALEC-friendly, Jerry Brown of California and Mark Dayton of Minnesota were not.

Here's what he found, in a nutshell: "Kansas and Wisconsin, ranked 15th and 17th in terms of the ALEC-Laffer Economic Outlook Rankings, are doing equally badly relative to US employment growth. In contrast, Minnesota (ranked 46th) is outperforming the United States and those two states...What about California? It is ranked 47th by ALEC-Laffer, and yet is doing the best in terms of employment amongst the four states." Chinn's graph of the four states' job growth accompanies this post.


As he observes, the most radical pro-ALEC governor is Walker, whose tax-cutting and anti-union zeal has propelled him into the race for the GOP Presidential nomination for 2016. His state's economic performance has been dismal, as ALEC's own figures show.

[sakabatou]

1. More of what we know already (at DU at least)

[Damansarajaya]

2. Correctamente.

Too bad it's a surprise to so many others . . .

[Cali_Democrat]

3. It also hurts state budget deficits

Rachel Maddow had a great piece on this a few days ago. She demonstrated how states like New Jersey, Kansas and North Carolina are facing massive budget shortfalls and credit downgrades because of tax cutting.

Naturally the governors in those states blame Obama for their budget deficits even though the Federal government's budget deficit has been shrinking at it's fastest pace since WW2 and there was actually a surplus in recent months. Why? Because Obama raised taxes on the wealthy and increased revenue.

GOPers just don't understand math.

When you cut taxes, you reduce revenue and increase the deficit.

[Historic NY]

4. NY is running this big ad campaign to "give away the store program"....

to attract business, 10yr tax breaks. Problems is they spending millions on the ads and in the end business may come but they ship on the day the welfare ends. It always happens. The morons were going to offer tax breaks for the casions until the taxpayers rear up in their faces. Imagine that.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2014/03/24/cuomo-administration-spent-million-start-ads/6798535/

[Agony]

5. Thanks for posting this.

This is important information.

[Damansarajaya]

6. Yup, I thought so too.

Even by the RepubliCons' own wrong-headed standards, their policies fail miserably.