Commentary

Bagwell Center Commentaries provide a discussion of relevant news items, public policy issues, or other current issues from an economic perspective. Each Commentary is an expression of the views of the writers (and not the Bagwell Center).  Commentaries are eligible for publication elsewhere (such as peer-reviewed academic journals).

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• "Are We in a Recession? Are We Heading to One?" by Filippo Occhino, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (May 2025)
• "Herbert Dow Destroys Predatory Prices" by Burt Folsom, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (April 2025)
• "Congressional District Level Allocation of Electoral College Votes" by Timothy Mathews, James Boudreau, Brett Katzman, and Jesse Schwartz (March 2025)
• "The New Tools of Monetary Policy: A Brief Economics Lesson" by C. Slade Dale, Lecturer of Economics (February 2025)
• "Behind the Disconnect between Consumer Sentiment and the Macroeconomy" by Filippo Occhino, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (January 2025)
• "Why I Think the U.S. is More Socialist and Less Competitive than Europe" by Marcus Marktanner, Professor of Conflict Management and Economics, at Kennesaw State University (December 2024).
• "AI Against the Rest: From Renaissance Alley to Silicon Valley" by Zeynep Kelani, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Kennesaw State University (November 2024)
• "'Price Gouging' in the Wake of a Natural Disaster: A Brief Economics Lesson" by C. Slade Dale (October 2024)
• "Presidential Elections: Electoral College versus National Popular Vote" by Timothy Mathews, James Boudreau, Brett Katzman, and Jesse Schwartz (September 2024)
• "The Importance of Omaha to the 2024 Presidential Election" by Timothy Mathews, James Boudreau, Brett Katzman, and Jesse Schwartz (August 2024)
• "The Debt the World Owes to the United States" by Burton Folsom, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (June 2024)
• "The Parable of the Towns" by Luc Noiset, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (May 2024)
• "Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share of Taxes?" by Timothy Mathews, Director of the Bagwell Center (April 2024)
• "Open AI's Legal Battles and the Penguin Effect" by James Boudreau, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (March 2024)
• "Overtime Rules" by James Boudreau, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member, Sean Ellermeyer, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member, Brett Katzman, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member, Timothy Mathews, Director, Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity and Jesse Schwartz, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (February 2024)
• "The Term Spread, Quantitative Easing, and the Probability of Recession" by Filippo Occhino, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (January 2024)
• "The Impact of Authoritarian State Capitalism on Economic Freedom in Türkiye" by Zeynep Kelani, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Kennesaw State University (December 2023)
• "On the Thermodynamic Properties of Capitalism" by Alex Maslov, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (November 2023)
• "On What Does the Federal Government Spend Its Money?" by Luc Noiset, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (August 2023)
• "Why Can't Government Successfully Create Jobs?" by Michael Patrono, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (July 2023)
• "Competing Tournament Organizers: the case of LIV Golf and the PGA TOUR" by James Boudreau, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member &  Timothy Mathews, Bagwell Center Director (June 2023)
• "It's Time to Kick Billionaires Off the Dole: Subsidizing Stadiums is Welfare for the Rich, Not Economic Development" by J.C. Bradbury, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (May 2023)
• "Infrastructure, yes. Federal aid, no." by Burton Folsom, Jr., Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (April 2023)
• "The Sacred Triumvirate of Neo-Marxism" by Alex Maslov, Vanderbilt University & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (March 2023)
• "Is Profit Maximization or Social Responsibility the Morally Correct Goal of Business?" (Part 4) by Michael Patrono, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (February 2023)
• "What Would Be the Macroeconomic Effects of a Corporate Tax Hike?" by Filippo Occhino, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (January 2023)
• "Is Profit Maximization or Social Responsibility the Morally Correct Goal of Business? (Part 3)" by Michael Patrono, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (December 2022)
• "Corruption's Effect on the Stock Market in Different Economies" by James Boudreau, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (November 2022)
• "Is Profit Maximization or Social Responsibility the Morally Correct Goal of Business? (Part 2)" by Michael Patrono, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (October 2022)
• "Free Trade Agreements: Economics or Politics?" by Gohar Sedrakyan, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (September 2022)
• "Is the Current Inflation Rate 0% or is it 8.5%? Yes and Yes!" by Timothy Mathews, Director of the Bagwell Center (August 2022)
• "Everything Wrong with the Economic Policies of Theodore Roosevelt” by Burton W. Folsom, Jr., Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (June 2022)
• Is Profit Maximization or Social Responsibility the Morally Correct Goal of Business? (Part 1)" by Michael Patrono, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (April 2022)
• "Have the Atlanta Braves Been a Home Run for Cobb?" by J.C. Bradbury, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (March 2022)
• "Three Big Myths about the Income Tax" by Burton W. Folsom, Jr., Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (January 2022)
• "Why Turkey’s Lowering of the Interest Rate is the Wrong Monetary Policy Tool to Fight Spiraling Inflation" by Zeynep Kelani, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Kennesaw State University and Edward Hoy (December 2021)
• "Pharmaceutical Regulation is at the Root of the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis" by Robert Gmeiner, Assistant Professor of Economics, Methodist University (November 2021)
• The Economics of Retirement: A Primer (Part 3)" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (October 2021)
• "Measuring the Impact of Economic Sanctions: Does a Better Quality of the Dependent Variable Matter?" by Gohar S. Sedrakyan, Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (September 2021)
• "The Economics of Retirement: A Primer (Part 2)" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (August 2021)
• "The Other Path: Canada" by Alex Maslov, Central Michigan University & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (July 2021)
• "The Economics of Retirement: A Primer (Part 1)" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (June 2021)
• "Why McDonald's Is Wrong About the Minimum Wage" by Murat Doral, Senior Lecturer in Economics & Michael Patrono, Bagwell Center Affiliate Faculty (May 2021)
• "Not Death, but the Other Thing" by Timothy Mathews, Professor of Economics & Bagwell Center Director (April 2021)
• "Basic Economic Theory and the DOJ's Google Lawsuit" by Brian Albrecht, Assistant Professor of Economics & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (March 2021)
• "The COVID-19 Employment Prospects of Women" by Gohar Sedrakyan, Assistant Professor of Economics & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (February 2021)
• "How the Wage Gap is Calculated, Why it is Wrong, & What We Can Do About It" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (January 2021)
• "Why U.S. Immigration Policy Should Favor Highly Educated and Skilled Immigrants" by Murat Doral, Senior Lecturer in Economics & Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (December 2020)
• "Not Taxes, but the Other Thing" by Timothy Mathews, Bagwell Center Director (November 2020)
• "The Economist's Approach to Thinking about Discrimination (and Other Issues)" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (October 2020)
• "Computers Still Cannot Plan an Economy" by Robert Gmeiner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (September 2020)
• "Competitive Markets Eliminate Discrimination: the Example of Professional Sports" by Burt Folsom, Visiting Professor of Economic History & Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (August 2020)
• "Much to Celebrate: Romania's Transition to an Open Economy 1989-2019" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (July 2020)
• "Revisiting the Economic Good from a Pandemic" by Robert Gmeiner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University and Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (June 2020)
• "The Great Pantomime" by Alex Maslov, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Finance and Quantitative Analysis (May 2020)
• "The Economics of Emergency Pricing: Immoral Behavior by Buyers when Prices Fall?" by Timothy Mathews, Director, Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity (April 2020)
• "The Economic Good of a Pandemic" by Robert Gmeiner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University and Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty (March 2020)
• "Why Competitive Markets Discourage Discrimination" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer in Economics & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (February 2020)
• "Video Games" by James Boudreau, Assistant Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University and Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (January 2020)
• "Vending Machines, Government Policy, and Economic Organization" by James Boudreau, Assistant Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University and Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (November 2019)
• "Inequality of Incomes and of Alcohol Consumption in the U.S." by Timothy Mathews, Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University & Director of the Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity (October 2019)
• "Do Labor Markets Discriminate Against Women?" by Michael Patrono, Senior Lecturer in Economics & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (September 2019).
• "Hong Kong's Protests Are About Economic Freedom and Opportunity" by Robert Gmeiner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics & Bagwell Center Affiliated Faculty Member (August 2019).