Joseph Haslag

Jobs, jobs, jobs. President Barack Obama unveiled his new plans to generate greater employment in the United States. The Missouri Special Session is considering proposals to increase Missouri...

Amid all the discussion of the various plans to address the ceiling on the amount of United States Treasury debt — think of this as the credit card...

June ushered in hotter temperatures and the announcement that VA Mortgage is expanding in Columbia. Both make me a little uncomfortable. Do not get me wrong; I am...

For anyone who has filled a gas tank during the past three months, there is no denying that the price is marching upward. Based on this observation, inflation...

I saw an opinion piece by Robert Reich last week in which he argued that the US recovery is not real until we see jobs recovering. Lots of...

During the past decade, Columbia has realized economic success. Payroll employment increased by 16 percent, total establishments increased by 21 percent, and payrolls increased by 46 percent. These...

As 2010 ends, many of Columbia’s economic indicators have shown modest improvement compared with a year ago. Further, the National Bureau of Economic Research experts on business cycles...

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System (the central bank), recently announced another round of quantitative easing. By the end of the...

In about one quarter of the largest cities in the United States, city governments have implemented an earnings tax. Generally speaking, the tax base consists of income earned...

In my last column, I set forth arguments against tax credits that are used to entice specific companies to locate in a city such as Columbia. The available...