Economy
What to make of the “Housing in R.I.” section displayed prominently on today’s ProJo.com frontpage? Let’s see, hmmm….wow, how ironic, Both condo sales and foreclosures are rising. Weird. Aw gee, Foreclosures taking a toll on Providence neighborhoods that’s sad. Not just here either? Nation’s mortgage woes put brakes on construction of homes, apartments. Yikes. Wait…
Turns out President Bush is only partially to blame for the high gas prices….(h/t and a wink) An eagle-eyed Senate GOP aide, perusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Web site, calls attention to her assertion there that “Americans are paying more than double for gas than when President Bush first took office.” She says the average…
The ProJo editorializes against putting a Yacht yard on the spot where a container port would go: The explanation for the state’s alacrity in welcoming a mega-yacht center: Governor Carcieri, who entered public life by opposing a container port, and some of his followers in the summer yacht-club crowd (some of whom only live in…
Another week, another pro-Port development editorial from the ProJo: Port jobs pay exceptionally well and tend to be outsourcing-proof, since businesses must move goods to population centers, wherever they are produced. Further, the ports spin off other business, for which there is plenty of room at a place like Quonset Point, in manufacturing and services.…
I don’t think Daniel Hunter’s theory of economics is going to play well with taxpayers. (Legislators, on the other hand, might be a different story.) From Brian C. Jones in this week’s Providence Phoenix… Beware of questions always asked about the arts in troubled budget times, [Daniel R. Hunter, borrowed from the Massachusetts Advocates for…
Kiersten Marek offers what might be thought of as the social worker’s response to Friday’s cris de coeur, and I’m not sure she’s understood my complaints or my worries. Most starkly, as I explained in the comments to my post, I do not blame Rhode Island’s politico-economic environment — much less the people who take…
Now that the Senate has slowed down the “amnesty” process a bit (phew!), perhaps they will be able to thoughtfully examine the economic impact of allowing massive numbers of low-skilled immigrant workers into this country (whether they’re here illegally or not). This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t allow such workers in, only that we…
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell writes: While most of the media were busy covering the latest developments on the Iraq funding bill or the bipartisan immigration proposal, congressional Democrats on Thursday quietly passed a budget creating the framework for the largest tax increases in American history… Everyone takes a hit. Forty-five million working families with two…
I agree with the Providence Journal that it is “perverse” for the CEO of a health insurance company to make one-and-a-half times the entire payroll of a 2,000-employee hospital. Considering how often Republicans and conservatives are saddled with the ideological blame for these supposed excesses of the free market, that admission may surprise some readers.…
Marc recently raised the question of conservative imperatives bearing on local versus big-brand shopping habits. It’s an interesting topic, because it lies at the intersection of various philosophical principles and general preferences. Chief among the principles is the acknowledgment that we must work within, rather than deny, the incomprehensible forces that govern human society. In…