Economy
One thing has stuck out to me recently in a couple articles I’ve read. One article is a couple years old and the other appeared just this past weekend and I think they both make logical mistakes. They both talk about getting Rhode Islanders back to work, yet both are also in fields that I…
For those who are seemingly dancing on the grave of 38 Studios already, keep in mind the reasons for things like the EDC’s $75M loan guaranty. I’m hearing and seeing various people crowing with their “I told you so” and explaining that the state should not be in the business of picking winners and losers.…
A recent Providence Journal article (Thanks Ted) remarked on the business economy in this state: If the state did not develop new industries and revive old ones, future generations would have trouble making it in the Ocean State. and A heavy reliance on a single industry made the state “highly vulnerable to shifts in consumer…
Saturday’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece about “The New American Divide“: People are starting to notice the great divide. The tea party sees the aloofness in a political elite that thinks it knows best and orders the rest of America to fall in line. The Occupy movement sees it in an economic elite…
In a column titled “Nobody Understands Debt,” Paul Krugman gives two reasons for Americans not to worry about President Obama and the rest of the federal government running up bewildering amounts of debt. First, families have to pay back their debt. Governments don’t — all they need to do is ensure that debt grows more…
I’m cleaning out my bookmarks for the first time in about seven years, and as we approach the change of the clock from one year to the next, I thought it appropriate to direct your attention to the U.S. Debt Clock. At this moment, the national debt is $15.2 trillion, personal debt is $16.0 trillion,…
Burton Malkiel, famous for having written a book titled A Random Walk Down Wall Street where he argues there’s no systematic way to beat the market, offered this big-picture advice for balancing an investment portfolio in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal…Are we in an era now when many bondholders are likely to experience very unsatisfactory investment…
Well, I don’t like to say “I told you so” but an article in GoLocalProv yesterday about the state of Providence’s budget wasn’t really a surprise. According to the article, almost halfway through the current budget year, the budget still is not only not balanced, but it’s about $24 million in the red. Some of…
Like a lot of conservatives, I’m sure, I find the prospect of our nation’s credit begin downgraded, or at least given a negative outlook, as Fitch Ratings just applied to the United States, a somewhat hopeful sign that the game of government taxing, borrowing, and spending cannot go on in perpetuity. But as I watch…
A projection posted at the New York Times Economix blog divides the 50 states and the District of Columbia into 5 groups, based on when they are expected to be home to the same number of jobs that they were in December 2007. The first group has already recovered. The group after that is projected…