Arriving at Ball State University two decades ago, I inherited a newspaper column. I viewed it with considerable trepidation. After all, there are no rewards for professors who write for newspapers.
Oh, how wrong I was.
This column, which surpasses 1,000 articles, is syndicated in close to 30 publications across Indiana — and occasionally nationwide. It has been a tremendous opportunity for which I am deeply grateful.
Through the past two decades, I have sought to use the tools of economics to prompt people to think about important issues. If I have succeeded at that, it is for the most basic of reasons. Folks who read the news and try to understand the world are smart, thoughtful people. You are the type of American who de Tocqueville marveled over, who Churchill admired and who Truman and Reagan listened to with care.
I’ve heard from thousands of you, from high school students to senators and governors. The most common sentiment has been a simple one: “I don’t always agree with you, but you make me think.” That was always my goal.
With that, I end this weekly column and retire from Ball State University.
To be honest, this departure is overdue. For too long I have stood in the way of younger, more talented colleagues at Ball State.
At the same time, I am sure there are fresh voices poised to write about economic policy and the state of public affairs. I look forward to reading their work.
My time at Ball State has been a blessing and an opportunity. I will miss many wonderful colleagues, especially those who’ve made the research center I leave among the most respected in the nation. And I will miss students, who are as smart, hardworking and delightful as ever.
From day one, the Muncie area embraced my family, including my parents — native Hoosiers — as they retired here from the Washington, D.C., area. Most importantly, this place gave wings to the dreams of my three children. Principals, teachers, coaches, neighbors and lunch ladies helped them chase the most demanding, honorable and rewarding of careers — military service and medicine.
From time to time, I might pen a column on matters that affect Indiana, where I still own a home and pay taxes. Both my and my wife’s families settled this land before statehood. It is a home I have loved all my life and much of my heart remains here.
Still, I owe readers a reckoning. What I got most wrong deserves mention. So do the issues about which I was right yet failed to make convincing arguments. This is an apology.
I missed the 2007 and 2014 recession calls. One happened; the other did not. I was wrong about both. Still, as Yogi Berra noted, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
The Affordable Care Act was a mistake, but it was a much smaller mistake than I wrote at the time. And what mostly went wrong with Obamacare was that too many states permitted hospital chains to develop costly regional monopolies.
Healthcare is a tough issue to write about, and I wish I’d been more nuanced about the policy issues, easier on legislators and harsher on the monopolists and their many apologists. I am delighted that Indiana’s elected leaders are tackling this problem with wisdom, serious research and courage. They deserve your strong support.
I was too easy on the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy in 2007 and 2022. In my defense, I know how tough that sort of analysis is to get right. Still, I should have done better at detailing what they got wrong.
I supported the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That was a mistake. It was a budget-busting disaster that onshored very little capital. I know the arguments about its growth effects but am not convinced. Its debt effects far, far outweigh growth.
I have also been right about things, but insufficiently persuasive in my writing.
State and local tax incentives don’t deliver value to taxpayers. They typically worsen local economies and should be ruthlessly abandoned. I wish I’d said that more often, and more effectively.
Policies that affect quality of life are far and away the most important growth opportunities for Indiana. I believe most Hoosier leaders either do not understand that or lack the courage to pursue real change. Either reason leaves me concerned for future Hoosiers.
If Indiana fails to prosper in the 21st century, which seems likely, it will be partially because I failed to convince more Hoosiers about the simplicity and free-market nature of quality-of-life policies. That will haunt me more than any other mistake.
I also wrote about issues that were not traditional economics — character mostly, but also public service and what it means to be a citizen of this great republic. I got that mostly right. Still, Indiana faces tough times with regard to character in public office and what it means to embrace the ideals of our nation. Hoosiers must choose more wisely. Character is destiny.
There are many people to thank for help on this column. I am thankful for those who listened to my ideas: the late Dick Heupel, David Terrell, Dagney Faulk and countless colleagues in the Miller College of Business. I also want to thank Judy Lane, Victoria Meldrum, Lisa Goodpaster and especially James Briggs, who edited this work, saving it from my own many limitations as a writer.
I also need to thank my family, who provided endless good ideas but were often asked, unfairly, to defend my work. And friends, especially at church, who offered grace when they disagreed.
One lesson I have re-learned in this work is the unimportance of opinion writers and professors — yet also the indispensability of the ideas about which we write, teach and research. Everything good and bad that befalls our republic comes from the kernel of an idea. Engaging with ideas is the birthright of free people.
Finally, I am humbled and grateful that anyone — you — read my work. So, I’ll leave you with the words of Fred Rogers: “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”
I am. I am moving to Shenandoah University, where I will direct the school of business and occupy an endowed chair of economics and free enterprise.
To each of you, I say farewell, keep reading and thinking. And thank you.
Michael J. Hicks is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: After two decades at Ball State, I’m saying goodbye to Indiana | Opinion
Reporting by Michael J. Hicks, Contributing Columnist / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michael J. Hicks, Contributing Columnist | USA TODAY Network
