Economy
CATO has put out a simple video explaining that the “drastic cuts” being bandied about ain’t no such thing, they’re just the typical political cuts (ie; a reduction in the previously projected rate of growth) (h/t):
Glenn Reynolds has been noting the “unexpectedly” bad job reports for many months now. In other words, for some reason, news outlets, pundits and the government all seem to be surprised that the job market continues to stink. Month after month, they’ve amped up hopes that unemployment is going to go down while new job…
It’s kind of surprising to see this reported as news, but perhaps it’s been so thoroughly forgotten among politicians and in the culture that it’s actually a new discovery for journalists: You get laid off. Your job search goes nowhere. Your savings dry up. Now what? The answer for many is as old as capitalism:…
There’s an army of right-leaning and libertarian bloggers who would be willing to offer this puzzled economic power broker a pointer or two: The economy’s continuing struggles aren’t just confounding ordinary Americans. They’ve also stumped the head of the Federal Reserve. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told reporters Wednesday that the central bank had been caught…
…if it’s a recovery at all…it’s a “Jobs lost” one. Only 58.4 percent of Americans are employed, the fewest since the 1980s. Corporations have recouped 100 percent of profits lost in the recession. GDP has regained its pre-recession level with 7.3 million fewer workers. I think baby-boomers leaving the workforce at least partially accounts for…
Richard Vedder, an economics at Ohio University, explains that one way to cut college tuition costs would be to ask professors to, you know, teach more. In a study for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, Christopher Matgouranis, Jonathan Robe and I concluded that tuition fees at the flagship campus of the University of…
Unemployment is reported as having gone up to 9.1% in May. It’s actually worse: Since November, the number of Americans counted as employed has grown by 765,000, to just shy of 139 million. The nation has been creating jobs every month as the economy recovers. The economy added 244,000 jobs in April. But the number…
The Providence Business News tipped me off to this story. The mayors of the region’s two leading fishing ports Wednesday said a special master’s report on miscarriages of justice by federal fisheries law enforcers described an “un-American” system that presumed guilt, and seemed consistent with a disrespectful view of fishermen they said permeates high levels…
This is the good news that’s we’ve all heard being touted: For the fourth month in a row, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate dipped slightly in April to 10.9 percent, the first time in 21 months it has fallen below 11 percent. Additionally, the number of jobs in the state grew by 1,800 from March to…
I’ve long described President Obama’s stimulus program as an attempt to insulate governments at various levels from the effects of the recession. The great bulk of the dollars flowed to states and municipalities in order to prevent budget cuts and, therefore, salary cuts and layoffs. The problem with seeing the “just spend” approach as a…