Corporate welfare for professional sports teams

I certainly don't agree with everything that the Cato Institute puts out, but I do read their Daily Commentary, which magically arrives on my antique Palm m105 every day (thanks to AvantGo), and often find it thought-provoking. Today's piece is about how the city council of Washington, D.C. is giving Major League Baseball a sweet deal on a new stadium. It's written by Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who is co-author of a Cato Institute report on the subject. Apparently their research suggests that the economic benefits of this kind of corporate welfare are ... nonexistent! (The commentary includes a link to a 12-page report you can download in PDF, which in turn has references to two related journal publications.)

Another recent Commentary I found useful was a review of books on Economics. Even if they don't get everything right (IMHO), there are some bright people at the Cato Institute.

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