Economic leakage occurs when money leaves or “leaks” away from the local economy sooner than expected and sooner than is optimal. From an ideal economic perspective, money should circulate in the local economy where it was received or earned five to seven times before leaving that community....

To better understand how business school students view the relationship between law and business, we used the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) to elicit the unconscious thoughts and feelings of twelve students about the role of law in starting and running a business in the United...

Indian Country is America's domestic emerging market, and as in a number of emerging markets, many successful businesses in Indian Country are starving for expansion capital. The US Treasury estimates that the private equity deficit in Indian Country is $44 billion. While the handful of...

When states wrongly insist on taxing on-reservation resources and economic activity, they dramatically increase the overall cost of any project. In some arenas, double taxation makes otherwise economically viable projects impossible to pursue. The impact is particularly acute for tribes that are...

When organizations in technology industries attempt to advance their innovative activities, they must be cognizant of the intellectual property rights of others. Patent thickets can thwart ongoing innovation, however, and throughout the last 150 years, firms have stumbled into a number of patent...

Property rights provide incentives to create information but also incentives to hoard it before award of protection. Even after award, others who might supplement that idea lack bargaining power until they too secure property rights. An unintended consequence is to slow, not hasten, progress...

Attorneys representing business clients with 401(k) plans or colleges and universities with 403(b) plans should pay close attention to the growing number of successful lawsuits involving plan sponsors and trustees, particularly two U.S. Supreme Court cases that unanimously ruled in favor of plan...

Just as anthonomus grandis, the boll weevil, migrated into the United States as an invasive species to suck the life out of cotton crops, so too are state “tax weevils” crossing into Indian Country to suck the life out of tribal economies. The founding fathers were fully aware of the grave...