Economy
Having just read promises of impending economic recovery, readers may have a common question in response to news about the implementation of the “stimulus” program: THE STATE HAD SPENT $254.2 million of the $1.1 billion [promised to Rhode Island] as of July 24, according to data released by the state Office of Economic Recovery &…
To the extent that believing in economic recovery precipitates it, it is arguably a good thing for the Providence Journal to splash the headline, “Economic rebound seen as job losses drop in July,” over a story from the New York Times. On the other hand, the whiff of dishonesty to the project may prove more…
My first car cost me $700, which I just barely managed to scrape together back in the early-mid ’90s. The purchase price of my 1975 Oldsmobile 98 included an adapter to play tapes in the in-dash eight-track player. Whenever my inexpensive patches gave way, the beast would roar like a Harley through its rotting exhaust…
Purely by coincidence, I read this prediction by commenter “doughboys”… ‘Exit from American investments’ is poorly phrased Justin. When the Chinese will not buy American at this fall’s debt auction (approximately 2 trillion dollars worth will be auctioned off) they will be swapping the $1.5 trillion US dollars they now hold for other assets before…
The administration likely offered something more concrete to the Chinese, during its groveling session, than we ordinary citizens apparently deserve: Among the officials meeting with Chinese representatives Monday, the first day of two-day talks, were Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Peter Orszag, Obama’s budget…
Noting a New York Post article on Washington’s spending bonanza, Glenn Reynolds writes: And yet members of Congress would be hard-pressed to tell you where the money’s going. This isn’t just undisciplined spending. It’s looting. I’d like to know whether the culprits will face a consequence for the travesty beyond their names’ being footnotes in…
Perhaps somebody can explain what I’m missing in this: Merchants across the nation, from powerhouses like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to gas stations, mom-and-pop restaurants and 7-Eleven, have spent years unsuccessfully fighting the biggest of these costs, known as an interchange fee, which generates an estimated $40 billion to $50 billion in income annually for…
Justin notes the state’s latest unemployment figure. Rhode Island now has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation. A Providence Bus News article posted July 8 suggests a major contributing factor in the form of other dubious rankings, which together mean that Rhode Island’s economic outlook ranked 48th among states in a new study…
It really is astonishing. With the economy flailing and the trends in job losses disappointing even the whiz kids of the Obama administration, despite its having whipped out the “stimulus” credit card, with “cap and trade” energy policy seeking to raise the cost of doing business (and of simply living), the Democrats are hitting the…
Ben Stein presents an excellent image: True, by many metrics, the economy has stopped falling drastically, but we are still in a painful recession, large by postwar standards. The bank crises seem to have abated for now and Wall Street is paying itself fantastically well again, thank heavens, after being rescued with taxpayer money. But…