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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Telephone: 608.262.3581
Fax: 608.265.3233

Last updated:
August 18, 2011

Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes Spring 2006

Faculty analyses draw questions from media

Several La Follette School faculty have been quoted in the media in response to their analyses of gasoline taxes, proposals to limit government spending and the U.S. current account deficit.

Director Donald A. Nichols suggested in September that perhaps gasoline prices were a little high after Hurricane Katrina, compared to the cost of a barrel of oil. “The disconnect between gasoline and crude oil prices is quite remarkable,” he noted in his regular economic forecast, given when gas was as much as $3 a gallon.

Nichols then appeared on CNN and noted that gas prices would fall substantially if crude prices did not rise. "Who is pocketing the windfall?" he asked.

Andrew Reschovsky burned the midnight oil to complete a study of a proposed amendment to Wisconsin’s constitution to limit the annual growth of revenue that local governments could collect. If enacted 20 years ago, the amendment would have held state revenue growth to 3.8 percent a year, as opposed to the actual 5.3 percent annual growth. That kind of limit would lead to severe cuts in public services, he says.

Menzie Chinn’s work on the current account deficit garnered attention. He warns that the United States must act to reduce the trade deficit.

Chinn and Nichols also shared their thoughts with journalists about new Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke. Chinn and Charles Engel hosted an international conference on current account sustainability in April at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Index to La Follette Notes spring 2006