Quality of life is an increasingly important factor when firms and families locate. The character of the natural and built environment of a community is important. We have a wonderful natural environment and are above average on the latter. Ed McMahon of the Conservation Fund recently spoke to a packed (SRO) auditorium at the Museum […]

MSU’s President’s Advisory Council met last week. Here’s some good news. We can be prudently optimistic about Montana’s universities. We’ll never be Berkeley, Cal Tech, or Chicago, but we can find highly productive niches that make sense for our region. The suggestion I offered at the meeting follows, but first I’ll provide some context. I […]

The Ethanol Producers and Consumers met this week in Whitefish. If you had attended you would have seen the political equivalent to the law of gravity at work. Here it is: Well-off, well-organized groups use government to transfer wealth and opportunities from the poorly organized and less well off to themselves. Both Republicans and Democrats […]

When I was in college, average income in Montana ranked in the top 10 of American states. Now we’re in the bottom 10, along with Mississippi and Arkansas. The reasons are clear. Our once prosperous basic industries–ag, forestry, and mining–are, and have been, in hard times. This is most unlikely to change. That’s the reality. […]