What do California, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota have in common? They are all blue states that have adopted a strategy of raising taxes on their wealthy residents. But almost all of these blue states lag behind the national average in growth of jobs and incomes. As Stephen Moore, asks, “So, if income […]
A Conundrum in America’s Workforce
One of the problems facing the U.S. today is that although there are a record number of Americans in the labor force today, there is also a labor shortage. Many businesses are desperately trying to find workers, writes the Heritage Foundation’s economist Stephen Moore. Employers are facing a shortage of either trained employees or low-skilled […]
Malpass: The Fed has a Mental Block
David Malpass writes in the Wall Street Journal that the Fed hasn’t recognized the poor results of its policy making. Without realizing its ineffectiveness the Fed won’t be able to make the necessary course corrections. On Wednesday Fed Chair Janet Yellen emphasized that the Fed is data dependent, implying that the economy will have to do […]
Pricing Minorities Out of Jobs
“It is not a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge that minimum-wage laws reduce employment opportunities for the young and the unskilled of any age,” writes Thomas Sowell in NRO. Check out the unemployment rates in such countries as Spain, Greece and South Africa where unemployment rates hover around 25 percent. Why? Each of these […]
The Forgotten Depression
You can get a glimpse into a beautiful economy by looking back to the early 1920s. James Grant, founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, has written a book called The Forgotten Depression. In it he describes how an economic crash in 1921 cured itself mainly because the government did nothing. Sound advice indeed. Listen to […]
Keystone XL—the Sound and the Fury
Is the battle over Keystone XL about creating jobs and spurring on the economy or is it about protecting pristine forests and further preventing carbon pollution? It’s neither, say most experts. Keystone XL will have little effect on climate change, production of the Canadian oil sands, gasoline prices, or the overall job market (a few […]
Higher Taxes Are the Answer!
The Cato Institute’s Dan Mitchell explains that if the goal is bigger government and more red ink, than higher taxes are a solution. Dan is America’s foremost scholarly, think tank advocate against big government and pro Federalism leading to innovation, diversity and experimentation. In his “The Best-Ever Argument for Federalism,” Dan writes, “The nation with […]
Sicily the Illinois of Italy
Italy needs to put Cato Institute Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell’s Golden Rule into play before it is too late to prevent a collapse. Here Mitchell explains: Let’s now circle back to a question asked above. Can Italy be saved? Like Mr. Farrell, I’m not optimistic. There’s no pro-market political party in Italy. And the so-called technocrats have […]
End the Fed
The Federal Reserve has been ruining the currency for over 100 years. Now there may be a way to stop it. The Cato Institute has established the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. According to CEO John Allison the center will focus on the creation of a free-market monetary system in the U.S. “We have assembled […]
Greed and a Rising Tide
Thomas Sowell asks (here) why the desire to increase and retain one’s own earnings should be characterized negatively as ‘greed, yet living at the expense of others is not? Here, Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner makes the case that growing wealth at the top of the pyramid also reduces poverty along the way. From economist Thomas […]
