Recent content from Lee Schafer
Schafer: Big power users benefit from competitive pricing law
The state’s Public Utilities Commission blessed a proposal last week to boost some big industrial operations in northeastern Minnesota by cutting their electric bills, which…
Schafer: Wells Fargo fiasco had roots in Norwest strategy
Wells Fargo may have a California headquarters address and carry a California brand name, but scrape off the red and yellow paint of Wells Fargo and you will see the blue and green of Norwest Corp.
Schafer: One20 thinks its free app can help truckers
The people involved with the start-up company One20 don’t really consider it a social media company, but one dead giveaway is that One20 doesn’t plan…
Schafer: MNsure isn't the cause of rising insurance rates
We can't make a good decision in the state about what to do about exploding insurance premium rates for individuals if it's MNsure that gets the blame.
Lee Schafer: Soon-to-premiere movie touts Minnesota's vibrant, diverse tech industry
The most important audience for a new documentary film on Minnesota's technology start-up scene will be the 500 or so mostly locals who gather for…
Lee Schafer: For some drug firms, highs and lows of value pricing are evident
Consumers who are outraged by huge increases in the price of the lifesaving EpiPen allergy drug could also direct a little of their anger toward…
Schafer: In the age of data, businesses can't forget about observation
The most interesting question tossed to a panel of business anthropologists this week in Minneapolis was whether companies should want a business person who’s been…
Schafer: Insider Fred Martin aims to reshape the investment industry
Some people look forward to traveling or maybe taking up gardening in retirement, but Fred Martin wants to fix a broken U.S. investment management industry.…
Schafer: Two years in, Target CEO's job isn't getting easier
There's plenty of evidence to support the idea that it's not a great time to be a retailer, but that hasn't stopped Wal-Mart.
Schafer: Another tech business spurns St. Paul for Minneapolis
It's really no surprise that the high-profile technology firm When I Work Inc. recently decided to leave St. Paul for Minneapolis.
Schafer: Length of the Twin Cities apartment boom to be decided by banks
People who look at all the cranes around for even more apartment projects and ask what the developers could be thinking don’t quite understand the…
Schafer: Value of a global economy tainted by politics
This isn’t the political season to want anything to do with the word “global,” but no one at 3M Co. would bother denying that it’s…
Schafer: Vikings' deal with Twin Cities Orthopedics shows state of the NFL
It’s hard to know what to think when a physicians practice like Twin Cities Orthopedics buys naming rights from a professional team in the…
Schafer: There's a reason for bad service from cable companies
It doesn't matter which publisher produces them, year after year it's the cable TV and internet providers populating the bottom of customer service lists. So delivering bad service is not just Comcast's problem, it's a whole industry's problem.
Schafer: It's amazing what we now call a public good
The term public good comes from economics and definitely doesn't mean what politicians are talking about when they insist that something needs to be done for "the good of the public."
Schafer: Changing health care landscape favors UnitedHealth Group
With uncertainty over Aetna's proposed purchase of Humana, the company with the dominant market share is going to remain Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group.
Schafer: Minneapolis start-up Stratifund guides new crowdfunding
Is there a Google waiting to be found in the Twin Cities?
Schafer: Exposing shortcut many firms take to augment perceived value
Donaldson Co. announced a share repurchase program last year as part of its strategy to support “our strategic growth plan while also returning cash to…
Schafer: What the lessons of tax-cutting in Kansas hold for Minnesota
Kansas officials can’t seem to put out a tax forecast that’s pessimistic enough, with tax collections in June falling short again, this time by more…
Schafer: Dayton shows Essar the door, but the mining company isn't dead yet
Gov. Mark Dayton invited the mining company Cliffs Natural Resources to step over the lifeless body of Essar Steel Minnesota and take over Essar’s stalled…
Schafer: Kickstarter 'Guide' takes the path less traveled
Entrepreneur Kurt Boerner is about to kick off a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a product he’s desperately hoping will be broadly used, but…
Schafer: Hedging is about lowering risk, yet Delta talks as if it's a bet
When pressed on why Delta isn't eager to lock in fuel prices with a hedge now that oil prices seem cheap, CEO Ed Bastian replied, "I don't get paid to make those types of bets."
Schafer: Minnesota State at the brink
The state's second-largest college system is under an extreme revenue squeeze as part of legislators' ongoing shift of money from education to health.
Schafer: Just why do people keep falling for financial fraud?
It’s never easy to guess, when reading a story about financial fraud, just what the victims could’ve been thinking. Sorry if this sounds like victim-blaming,…
Schafer: Pro-Brexit forces didn't seem interested in self-interest
In the chaos since the vote last week in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, maybe the biggest unanswered question is how much more damage angry voters in big democracies are willing to do to themselves.
Schafer: Angel investor's lesson – it takes plenty of at-bats before you hit home run
When people put the first outside capital in a start-up company, it’s usually called angel investing, and it’s yet another one of those activities that…
Schafer: Minnesotan sees profits in the paleo diet
The language and culture of technology start-ups seems to be leaking into other industries, and hearing a term like "get to scale" from a food…
Schafer: Why we keep working these long, long weeks
This column is getting wrapped up at about my 50th hour of work in what’s traditionally considered the first week of summer, when the kids…
Lee Schafer: Cliffs' deal with steel giant looks like Essar's last loss
A new long-term supply agreement that Cliffs Natural Resources has reached with steel giant ArcelorMittal put the final nail in the coffin of Essar Steel Minnesota.
Schafer: What in the name of 'tronc' was Tribune Publishing thinking?
The world of journalism rarely provides lessons in business leadership. Then came tronc. In case you missed this news, that will be the new name…
Schafer: How our biases lead us to make mistakes
It’s refreshing to read in a new book called “The Physics of Brand” that the authors refuse to use terms like consumer or target market.…
Schafer: Why the Central States Pension Fund is doomed to fail
The Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund looks all but certain to fail, crushing the retirement dreams of thousands of Minnesotans and many thousands more in other states.
Schafer: Proterra invests in battling hunger
Rich Gammill of the private equity fund Proterra Investment Partners might have mentioned "feeding the world" a half-dozen times in an hour, as he talked through where his firm puts its money.
Schafer: Real estate tech firm stakes out new turf in real estate
The only way for an entrepreneur to claim credit for a big surge of demand no one really saw coming is by responding the way…
Start-ups these days don't necessarily want to be UnitedHealth
The next UnitedHealth Group is probably going to go out of business this month as the founders shut it down rather than try to raise more money to pay June's rent.
Schafer: Legislature should protect Prince's right of publicity
Do our state legislators have the good sense to make it easier for Prince's estate to legally protect the value of his image and likeness?
Schafer: Pioneer Press owner's plan is to 'harvest' what is left of the newspaper
The hedge fund that controls the Pioneer Press has apparently decided on one of the time-honored strategies to make money in a declining business. It’s…
Kashkari tells Schafer he knew what he was doing
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis next week will have its second symposium on what to do about the risk of having to bail out a bank that is still too big to fail. Its president, Neel Kashkari, says he thought the initiative would make a splash. Instead, banks are "trying to throw every criticism at us."
Schafer: St. Jude sale is sad, but part of inevitable industry pattern
As disappointing as it is, there's nothing unique about big companies in Minnesota getting gobbled up.
Schafer: 2 brothers, 2 breweries, but no ill will on tap
After I first heard that brothers Robert and John Klick had founded competing craft breweries on Lake Minnetonka, the headline more or less wrote itself:…
Schafer: Carlson is just one big family business doing what is best
It was certainly no surprise when Carlson announced Wednesday that it’s getting out of its hotel business. There is a Chinese buyer, which makes the…
Schafer: Tough times could mean difficult choices on the Iron Range
It's not surprising that a snapshot of the Iron Range economy from the state's Office of the Legislative Auditor shows a depressing picture.
Schafer: Huntsman sees U.S. opportunities in China
The former American ambassador to China says U.S. executives and business owners don't appreciate how much opportunity exists for them to make money in the world's most populous country.
Schafer: Job losses in mining are no longer big news, and recovery will not be a smooth trip
United States Steel Corp. didn't think it was worth a public announcement, the news this month that at least one out of every four of its salaried employees would lose their job.
Schafer: Many securities brokers stay on the job despite complaints against them
Four out of 10 brokers who lose their job after misconduct quickly get another one, according to a team of researchers, including one at the University of Minnesota.
Schafer: Iron Range is latest region to face resource curse
Maybe we've been wrong all along about the abundant deposits of iron ore in northeastern Minnesota, enabling generations of Minnesotans to earn a good living by mining.
Schafer: U political scientist Larry Jacobs takes on the Fed in new book
Business columnist Lee Schafer says Jacobs makes important points, though he doesn't agree with all of them.
Schafer: Here's why this time really is different for Minnesota mining
By now a "15,000 Layoffs?" newspaper headline should be no surprise to the iron miners of northeastern Minnesota.
Lee Schafer: High stakes in growth struggle at General Mills
There's no financial crisis but, with what has happened to some of its rivals, the pressure is real at General Mills.
Schafer: Presidential candidates are missing the point on trade
Economist John Spry said his profession maybe deserves a little of its reputation for muddling an issue, but on a few things, economists really do know the score.
Schafer: Clear thinking is needed on the future of Giants Ridge
The Giants Ridge resort is such a big part of the state agency leading economic development on the Iron Range that the resort received its…
Schafer: The investor conflict at Cogentix is unusual
One of the most successful investors in med-tech has made public a quarrel with a company where he sits on the board.
Schafer: New book by Mike Veeck covers all the innovative bases
The professional baseball impresario Mike Veeck wrote what he called a "sports book with silly stories" more than 10 years ago. He found that he'd accidentally written a business book.
Schafer: Why is state only now taking action on Twin Metals mine?
The state’s governor may not have killed the proposed Twin Metals copper, nickel and precious metals mine project in northeastern Minnesota, when he said this…
Schafer: Plans for soccer stadium area shy of 'realistic'
It's just not easy to imagine several office buildings standing in the Midway area, even in 15 years and with a gleaming soccer stadium right there, too.
Macalester QB, economics student tackles football analytics
Macalester College quarterback and budding economist Benny Goldman has built a predictive model that just may reshape traditional decision making.
Schafer: Ecolab the latest to alter operations in Venezuela
Ecolab’s announcement that it is “deconsolidating” its businesses in Venezuela might look like a creative accounting approach to get a bad business off the books.…
Attention, retirees: Social Security loophole is closing
Sometimes when Congress gets around to closing a loophole in some government program, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it's not just…
Banking structure hasn't changed enough to stop another crisis like 2008
New Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari decided he wouldn’t really be doing his job if he didn’t warn us that a 2008 kind…
Comic actor John Cleese makes the case for creativity
An audience at the University of St. Thomas' Minneapolis campus last week got to laugh while hearing comic actor John Cleese's sensible advice on how to foster creativity.
Schafer: Fixes, hopefully, would put state's pensions on a path to stability
A proposed set of “sustainability fixes” that just came out for the state’s biggest public employee pension plans should go a long way toward reducing…
Schafer: Is St. Paul soccer parking headed for an off-ramp?
There’s a study underway to estimate just how many people will use transit to get to the new soccer stadium once it gets built in…
Schafer: Why do Fed voters always agree?
Our Federal Reserve policy committee only shifts direction when nearly everyone agrees — and as a result probably plays it too safe.
Schafer: Caution signs appear along the economic highway
Sales of all-terrain vehicles aren’t one of the classic leading economic indicators that point to how the broader economy will do just down the road,…
Schafer: State-run retirement plans could offer a fix for future
If employers haven't been paying attention to what states are now up to with their own private-employer retirement plans, it's time they start.
Schafer: Sale of Carlson hotels could be a well-timed decision
A business owner starts looking for a buyer when the company is performing well and worth a lot, or when going it alone begins to…
Why is the Downtown East Commons park such a tough sell?
It's going to take $22 million in donated money to fully realize the plan for the Downtown East Commons park, envisioned as the kind of civic jewel that should inspire the generosity of the corporate community.
Schafer: Find financial peace as the markets struggle
A wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime family vacation had me out of the office for the first two weeks of January. One completely unintended benefit of not going…
Schafer: Defining and defending disruptive innovation
Clayton Christensen, the doctor of “disruptive innovation,” is about as celebrated as business thinkers get. Yet he was just back in the Harvard Business Review…
Schafer: Minneapolis hedge fund exposes the dark side of hedge funds
Maybe becoming wealthy enough to have your money in a hedge fund is actually one of the drawbacks of getting rich.
Schafer: Thoughts of money make us harder working and more self-centered
Being reminded of money, even unconsciously, changes the way people behave, making them both harder working and more self-centered, a University of Minnesota researcher has…
Schafer: After the slump, Congress didn't have to act that way
With an apparently perfect sense of timing, Congress decided to stimulate the economy through fiscal policy the very week the Federal Reserve decided its extraordinary efforts to stimulate the economy probably weren't needed anymore.
Getting a nonprofit off the ground can be tricky
Leading a small nonprofit out of its development stage looks to be as much of a challenge as that faced by an entrepreneur trying to launch a company. The big difference, of course, is that when the nonprofit finally blossoms there won't be big financial rewards for the boss.
Schafer: Fed has taken the first step back to normal
It’s not going to make much of a difference in a big banking company like U.S. Bancorp that the interest rate for federal funds is…
Schafer: A starting wage of $11 or $12 an hour isn't much progress
Even $11 per hour isn't a real minimum wage for most workers, at least if by minimum we mean being able to afford much of a life.
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