Economy
According to Providence Business News, foreclosures continue to increase: The number of foreclosure notices in Rhode Island rose 9.2 percent in the first three months of this year compared with 2009, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. The Irvine, Calif.-based real estate tracking firm said one in every 242 homes in the Ocean State received a foreclosure…
It’s certainly becoming interesting to watch the intellectual right discuss whether the economy is actually recovering. The emerging consensus appears to be that some economic indicators look healthy, but that they aren’t built on long-term, sustainable flows of resources. Even in an essay titled “Warranted Pessimism,” Stephen Spruiell suggests that the economy may manage to…
Larry Kudlow suggests that Republicans shouldn’t let political enthusiasm lead them to deny economic reality, especially an economic reality that benefits the United States: Sometimes you have to take out your political lenses and look at the actual statistics to get a true picture of the health of the American economy. Right now, those statistics…
The Newport Daily News headline for this AP report pretty well captures the spin and points to the possible problem: “New mileage rules will save drivers at the pump.” The rules will cost consumers an estimated $434 extra per vehicle in the 2012 model year and $926 per vehicle by 2016, the government said. But…
A quick note on conservatives’ view of businesses appears to be in order. In general, we do not believe businesses are inherently pure, moral actors. We do not look at the housing bubble and the derivatives market and defend them on the grounds that they were legal, so nyaa, nyaa, the CEOs got away with…
Almost since the recession began, I’ve been wondering out loud what was going to pull us out of it — what unexplored industry, what as-yet-stagnant market, what boom. In the intervening months, it’s been clear that the Obama administration’s strategy has been to prop up the public sector (i.e., insulate government from the downturn), flood…
In the aptly named “Green Jobs and Rose-Tinted Glasses” (subscription required), Iain Murray argues that evidence does not suggest that the “green” subindustry is a windfall just requiring a little initial shaking: Green jobs, it would seem, are a magic bullet for the administration, solving the problems of unemployment, poverty, community degradation (and therefore crime,…
[A constituent contacted Senator Whitehouse to express concerns about the rate of unemployment in the United States and efforts at immigration reform pending in Congress. Following is the Senator’s reply.] Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding America’s immigration system. I appreciate hearing from you regarding this very important issue. I understand your…
Yesterday I mentioned the report that federal employees make more than private employees in most occupations. Now we learn that 6 out of the 10 wealthiest counties ( and 11 of the top 25!) are suburbs of Washington, D.C. Rank County Population Median household income 1 Loudoun County 277,433 $110,643 2 Fairfax County 1,005,980 $106,785…