A recent University of Chicago Booth School poll gathered reactions from the nation’s leading economists across the political spectrum on the candidates’ policy positions in the national elections just concluded.

Though economists famously argue about almost everything, this panel strongly opposed tariffs, with 96% agreeing or strongly agreeing the costs would be borne by American consumers.

How might ignoring the economists affect Wisconsin’s economy?

Populist trade policy at the national level is especially dangerous for Wisconsin workers. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Wisconsin was the 20th largest exporter of goods in 2023 among the states. Wisconsin’s $28 billion in exports represents 6.8% of the state’s economy. Exports are responsible for more than 100,000 jobs for Wisconsinites.

Wisconsin, it turns out, is among the states working most diligently at making childcare more expensive.

Makes you wonder whether that’s deliberate.

We’re at the point that putting an infant full-time into a childcare center will cost more than University of Wisconsin tuition. It should be unsurprising, then, that on a new measure comparing states’ regulatory burden on childcare providers, Wisconsin was in the harshest quarter of states, with the 11^th most burdensome set of regulations.

It should be unsurprising since, as the researchers demonstrate, a state’s regulatory burden correlates to the cost of childcare in that state. By being strict, Wisconsin is making childcare expensive.

Home ownership — a key ambition of Wisconsinites pursing the American Dream – is much lower than it was 20 years ago in the Badger State.

Only 69% of households owned the property they lived in last year, according to 2023 U.S. Census data.

The homeownership rate is considered a comprehensive metric of how well our socioeconomic system “is ‘delivering the goods’ for the typical American family,” explained Don Layton for the Joint Center on Housing Studies of Harvard University in a 2021 essay.

According to Layton, higher rates of homeownership reflect larger household incomes combined with affordable mortgages. Homeownership itself tends to improve a family’s quality of life and serves as a vehicle for building wealth for retirement or the next generation.

“Thanksgiving is at the heart of the American experience. It is intertwined with seminal moments in our history—the arrival of the early European settlers, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the westward expansion, the influx of immigrants. In all these events, religious faith played a part. The first act of the first Continental Congress was to declare a national day of giving thanks to God. The first presidential proclamation was George Washington’s call for a day of thanksgiving. In 1863, when the nation was torn asunder by war, Lincoln established the Thanksgiving holiday as a permanent fixture on the American calendar. Congress codified Thanksgiving Day into law in 1941, just days after the United States’ entry into World War II.”

— Melanie Kirkpatrick,
Thanksgiving: The holiday at the heart of the American Experience

Madison’s most prominent Christmas tree was positioned in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol on Thursday, Nov. 21.

According to a statement from Gov. Tony Evers, “Next year, in 2025, we’ll be celebrating 125 years of Wisconsin’s state parks, so to kick off the celebration, I am excited to announce that the theme of the 2024 Wisconsin State Capitol Holiday Tree is 125 Years of Wisconsin’s State Parks!”

Lighting of the tree is scheduled to take place Thursday, Dec. 5.

Photo source: Rep. Rick Gundrum

The Badger Institute, formerly known as the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), has long been at the forefront of the fight for school choice, right to work, welfare reform, tax restructuring, limited government, civil society and so much more. If you appreciate the Institute’s legacy and want to support free markets, opportunity and prosperity, please consider donating today. Your support will help the Institute continue to advocate for conservative principles now and in generations to come.

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