Economy
May 13, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As everyone who follows the financial markets knows, the Federal Reserve is trying to walk a fine line, hinting that they’d like to start cutting interest rates, but still worried that inflation is proving too persistent to do it just yet (never mind whether real inflation is actually higher than the official headline rate because of how we measure inflation these days). Further rate hikes seem to be ruled but,
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May 12, 2024 — John Hinderaker
This happened a week ago, but I just saw it courtesy of Christopher Monckton on Watts Up With That?: Here is perhaps the most spectacular instance of invincible ignorance I have come across in a long career studying this phenomenon and working to prevent its weaponization and deployment by those who mean harm to democracy. Here is a verbatim clip from a recent interview. Your mission, should you choose to
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April 24, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It is tempting to suggest that the best of all worlds is for Trump to be tied down in the courtroom, where he can’t let fly with one of his frequent provocations, while Joe Biden gets out and campaigns more, reminding Americans that he is a doddering fool. The big story last week was that Biden is the comeback kid! The polls have closed, with some putting Biden back in
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April 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Many are hailing today’s establishment and household job reports, which show 300,000, or as many as 500,000, jobs being added in March. But Steve Moore points out in his Committee to Unleash Prosperity email that the picture is far from rosy: The new job numbers for March were strong with 300,000 jobs added in the establishment survey and 500,000 in the household survey. But those positive headline numbers camouflage a
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April 1, 2024 — John Hinderaker
America’s colleges and universities have damaged our country badly, and don’t show any sign of reform. So one obvious path to improvement is for fewer people to attend them. Happily, that is happening: not only that, but young people are finding better alternatives. Links in original: Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing
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March 21, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman keeps demanding to know why the plebs of America don’t appreciate just how awesome the economy is under Joe Biden’s brilliant economic management. In his latest column, “Why Are Americans Still Down on the Economy?,” the Krugster says: It’s true that most Americans have a negative view of the economy. But people don’t directly experience the economy. What they directly experience are their own financial
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March 14, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I am so old, I can remember when “public servants” used to earn less money than they could have expected in the private sector. But those days are long gone. Now, government employees have the rest of us by the throat. Our tax dollars are enriching them, on the average, far beyond what they could earn anywhere else. This is from Stephen Moore’s Committee to Unleash Prosperity: The average cost
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March 10, 2024 — John Hinderaker
DEI (racial and other quotas) is intrinsically evil. At The Hill, Matt Cole and Chris Nicholson reveal a shocking, practical downside to DEI hysteria: “DEI killed the CHIPS Act.” The issue is critical because Taiwan now produces 90% of the world’s advanced microchips, and China has indicated its intention to annex Taiwan in the near future. So the CHIPS Act sought to incentivize chip production in the U.S. Unfortunately, that
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March 8, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Earlier today, I posted the official GOP response to Joe Biden’s SOTU hate-fest, by Senator Katie Britt. Britt’s speech was an impressive performance in its own way; if I were a Democrat, I think she would scare me. But for us data guys, Stephen Moore’s Unleash Prosperity Hotline has the numbers: A lot of tall tales and a few outright fabrications in the Biden speech last night – and far
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March 7, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
Brian Deese is “an MIT Innovation Fellow, focusing on the impact of economic policies that strengthen the United States’ industrial capacity and on accelerating climate investment and innovation.” Before that, Deese assisted Joe Biden as Director of the National Economic Council. Asked in 2022 how American families could cope with surging gasoline prices, the NEC boss said, “this is about the future of the liberal world order, and we have
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March 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Jeffrey Anderson presents a comparative analysis of presidents and inflation. The mainstream press to the contrary notwithstanding, he explains what Biden has done to make us feel so black and blue. It’s not our imagination. It’s the inflation, stupid! See his City Journal column “No great mystery.” Anderson manages to review the data and perform the analysis with a sense of humor. The daycare minders at the White House have
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February 7, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Having unleashed a wave of inflation not seen for more than 40 years, Democrats naturally are shocked to discover inflation is not popular with Americans. So naturally liberals are dredging up the only policy worse than inflation as a proposed remedy—price controls! What a great idea. Our friends and Kite & Key Media are on it, and offer this nice treatment of the issue. Not that any liberals are capable
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January 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
One iconic cultural institution after another has collapsed in recent years, but this still seems shocking: while news accounts are somewhat confusing, it appears that all or nearly all employees of Sports Illustrated magazine have received layoff notices. Sports Illustrated belongs to Authentic Brands Group, which licensed the magazine to Arena Group Holdings. The present layoffs apparently are the result of Arena’s failing to make its quarterly license payment. Hollywood
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January 18, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Why do some countries prosper, and others don’t? That is actually a very easy question to answer. People become prosperous unless their governments stop them. Freedom begets prosperity, every time. This video from Kite and Key Media makes the point simply, but overwhelmingly. It won’t come as a surprise to you, but you may want to send the link to your liberal brother-in-law: We can add this observation: there are
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January 1, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Biden administration brags about the number of jobs being created, but given our rather slack economy it is reasonable to wonder what kind of jobs they are. At the Wall Street Journal, Allysia Finley has a sobering answer: Drill into the nation’s 3.7% unemployment rate, and you’ll find a growing welfare-industrial complex beneath the seemingly strong labor market. Government, social assistance and healthcare account for 56% of the 2.8
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December 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
It has been obvious for quite a while that Americans are deserting blue states in favor of red states. Thus, after the last census states like California and New York lost seats in the House, while states like Florida and Texas gained seats. Just-released census data show that migration from blue to red continues. The New York Post focuses, naturally, on New York: New York’s population plunged more than any
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December 11, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Chinese Communist Party may be evil, but it isn’t stupid. It has been working on dominating the world’s supply of critical minerals for quite a few years now. Geopolitical Monitor has “A Brief History of US-China Rare Earth Rivalry.” First, a little background: Rare earth elements (REEs), comprising 17 (15 commercially relevant) chemical elements and soft heavy-metals like Thulium and Cerium, are vital in modern technologies from cell phones
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