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MinnEcon Blog

Prized possesions for sale in stressed economy

My MPR News colleague Mike Caputo spent the last couple weeks asking people in our Public Insight Network about having to sell the things they love in this economy to pay the bills. He got back some great, heartfelt stories. Mike was on All Things Considered talking about it this afternoon. You can hear it…
by Paul Tosto

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Retail sales slip and gasoline sales plummet, latest data show

Not only are we not buying stuff, we are not driving. Retail sales took a step back in March, slipping 1.1 percent from February after a couple months of gains. The market had expected a slight increase. Overall, the data released today showed a nearly 11 percent drop in sales from last year. Maybe most…
by Paul Tosto

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Success and struggle in MN jobless data

Minnesota’s unemployment rate for March comes out Thursday and the odds are it will not be great. It hit 8.1 percent in February, catching up with the national rate and probably rose in March. Here’s my first attempt at a MinnEcon chart: Minnesota unemployment rates by month from 1976 to February 2009: I’ll get better…
by Paul Tosto

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More evidence that you don’t want to spend

In this economy, we are all saving as much as we can, paying down debt and becoming more frugal. That’s a theme we hear regularly as we talk about the economy in Minnesota. As economic watchers wait and worry about Tuesday’s retail sales report, here’s more evidence that Americans are rethinking the way they do…
by Paul Tosto

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Twin Cities Realtors say stimulus tax credit driving new home demand

Realtors have an obvious interest in talking about how now is the right time to buy a house. Boom or bust markets, it’s always a good time to buy! Today, though, the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors came out with hard data that seem to show signs of a genuine upswing in the Twin…
by Paul Tosto

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Is it stimulus?

MPR News reporter Annie Baxter has a good story this morning on some of the unusual places federal stimulus money will land in Minnesota, including $11,000 to the Dakota County Sheriff’s office that may buy a couple of updated digital video recorders for cruisers. But is that the sort of thing that will really stimulate…
by Paul Tosto

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A little good news for Minnesota in jobless claims data

Looking for upside in the economy is a noble quest these days. So it’s worth noting that Minnesota looked pretty good relative to other states in today’s new jobless claims data. In the most recent weekly report, Minnesota was among the states with the largest drop in initial employment claims from the prior week. Not…
by Paul Tosto

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Are snow fences and road resurfacing really stimulus?

So the Minnesota Department of Transportation today put out its big list of road projects for the season — 223 state highway and bridge projects worth about $1.4 billion. Sixty greater Minnesota projects will use money from the federal stimulus package. But will they really stimulate the economy? That package includes snow fencing, highway rest…
by Paul Tosto

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Stimulus cash showing up soon in your paycheck. Will you spend it?

It won’t be a ton a money but you should see a little more cash rolling into your paycheck in the next few weeks — part of the federal stimulus package known as the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. The vital question for the nation?Are you going to spend it? For this year and next,…
by Paul Tosto

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A good, quick look at the Minnesota state budget

It’s hard to get your arms around $30 billion of spending. That’s the Minnesota state budget. But House and Senate staffers recently came as close as anyone to making it easy to understand. It’s worth checking out. In a dozen-plus PowerPoint slides, they’ve made it easy to see where the public money’s coming from and…
by Paul Tosto

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