Fergus Hodgson

Fergus Hodgson

Email Address: fhodgson@johnlocke.org

Fergus Hodgson is Director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the John Locke Foundation and a Policy Advisor with The Future of Freedom Foundation. He also hosts a weekly show, "The Stateless Man," with the Overseas Radio Network. Previously, he was a Visiting Scholar with the American Institute for Economic Research, Massachusetts, and a Research Associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Canada.

His commentaries have appeared in newspapers and magazines in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, including the Washington Times, Sacramento Bee, Providence Journal, and Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has also contributed to online outlets such as the Daily Caller, The American Conservative, World Net Daily, Fox News Latino, and LewRockwell.com. Read his Locker Room blog contributions here.

Given a particular interest in migration, Latin America, and foreign affairs, he has a fortnightly column in the Spanish-language newspaper, La Conexión, and he is a frequent guest on the Russia Today television network.

After receiving an athletic scholarship and moving from rural New Zealand, he graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He then completed a second major in political science and taught macroeconomics with the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Recent Research

2012 State Spending at a Record High: Albeit Concealed, State Spending Has Grown For Decades

Total state spending per capita is at its highest level ever in the 2012 fiscal year and has more than tripled since 1970. Over the past four decades, state spending has grown much faster than personal income, and in real, per capita terms, spending on all reported categories has more than doubled since the mid-1970s. That includes education, corrections, health and human services, transportation, and debt servicing. General fund spending per capita has declined by 16 percent since 2009, but per capita spending outside of the general fund increased by 26 percent and more than compensated for the general fund’s decline. Federal aid continues to comprise an ever-larger portion of the state budget, and North Carolina’s cash-basis accounting conceals spending and is generating unfunded liabilities

First, Stop the Bleeding: Getting North Carolina Out of Its Unemployment Insurance Crisis

North Carolina’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) administrators have vastly outspent revenues and generated a debt of $2.6 billion with the federal government—the third-highest in the nation, on a per-capita basis. This report proposes five ways for legislators to address this rapidly growing problem.

A Quarter-Million More for Montgomery? Secretive county seeks a third tax increase in three years

Montgomery County commissioners have raised the property tax by nine cents over the last three years, from 58 cents to 67 cents per $100 valuation — a 15.5 percent increase. Now the commissioners want voters to approve a quarter-cent sales-tax increase worth an estimated $250,000.

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Recent Videos


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Recent Radio Interviews

U.S. House Committee Asks Perdue For Documents

CJ Radio #454: State Panel Recommends $50,000 to Eugenics Victims

What Does It Take To Lift People Out of Poverty?

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Recent Research Newsletters

Message to Occupy Charlotte

The Problem with Inflation

Federal Fiscal Impotence and a State-Led Solution

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