Rhode Island Economy
Dog bites man, I know, but national publications constantly touting how bad this state is does have an effect. That being said, if recent election results are any indication, Rhode Islanders–well, at least those who stick around–just don’t really care. Rhode Island ranks No. 49 this year, down one spot from 2011. Rhode Island has…
To kick off a two-year planning process, the RI Economic Development Corporation under Governor Lincoln Chafee is seeking a contractor to, among other things, “analyze existing business climate reviews from the past three years, such as the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index, Beacon Hill Institute’s State Competitiveness Rankings, and Forbes Best States for…
When a family comes to a decision about purchasing any product or service, it doesn’t merely accept the seller’s sense of what’s reasonable. In addition to the market rate, consumers must take into account the quality of the thing they’re buying as well as their own ability to afford it. With deteriorating infrastructure, doubts about…
Rhode Island’s employment results, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), would surely surprise the tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders who are struggling to survive the state’s continuing downturn: For the second month in a row, the Ocean State led the nation in employment growth. The state still has the second…
Readers of Philip Marcelo’s article, in today’s Providence Journal, about restoration of the historic-structure tax credit program in Rhode Island should see some warning signs indicative of a broader flaw in government economic development: … the national recession and a 2008 moratorium on the tax-credit program brought such projects to a near halt. Dozens stalled…
Election season and other contingencies led me to miss the single-family home sales data for September, but compared with August, Rhode Island’s real estate market appeared to near or perhaps finally to reach the bottom in October. For the state as a whole, median sales prices were lower in the last 12 months than in…
Campaign finance & incumbents; where the buck stops for the bad economy; Obama follows Chafee on a Commerce Czar; and the storm should be a warning. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
In what’s beginning to feel like a Rhode Island tradition, seven ballot questions will be posed to voters on November 6 having to do with casinos and debt. Those with a personal financial or ideological stake are making their cases, but small-government, free-market ideals should lead voters to be wary of the pitches. Continue reading…
The national political scene saw quite a stir, the first week of October, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a huge jump in employment and corresponding drop in the unemployment rate. As I noted at the time, a large percentage of the increase was attributable to people who are involuntarily working part time,…
According to a press release from the RI Department of Labor and Training — the last to report this data before the election — Rhode Island’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.5% in September, its lowest level since April 2009. The change was on the strength of the state’s ” largest monthly increase of employed RI residents since…
