Scots will be worse off if they vote for independence. It’s not good economics and not much else is at stake. Unlike the now dormant, but never dead, separatist movement in Quebec, and rising tide for independence in Catalonia, the
President Obama’s vow to destroy ISIS rings hollow and sets the course for another American misadventure. Along with allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, he refuses to grasp that security can’t be purchased on the cheap. The cancer
The bill is coming due for ObamaCare and it’s a whopper. According to Medicare Care’s own actuaries, U.S. health care spending is about to skyrocket. Federal meddling in what was once the finest and most cost-effective health care system on
The economy created only 142,000 jobs in August, down from 212,000 in July, indicating the economy significantly slowed this summer. Jobs creation is well below the pace needed to reemploy all the workers displaced during the financial crisis–the economy is
This Friday the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 230,000 jobs in August. The pace has picked up a bit but is still far less than needed to reemploy all the prime aged workers displaced in the
Burger King’s effort to acquire Tim Horton’s, a Canadian purveyor of coffee and doughnuts, is a good business decision, but its choice to locate corporate headquarters north of the border would be the direct result of President Obama’s anti-business tax
President Obama, as promised, is changing America. High taxes and abusive enforcement are compelling businesses and ordinary citizens to leave the country altogether. The United States has much higher corporate tax rates than other industrialized countries, and increasingly, the IRS
The Labor Department reported the economy added only 209,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent, but that hardly tells how tough the labor market has become for ordinary folks. The jobless rate may be down from
Stocks may be near record levels but the bull market is not done. Digital technologies permit businesses to use investors’ cash far more efficiently these days, and could easily push up stock prices another 25 percent. Henry Ford had a
Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 235,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate remained steady at 6.1 percent, but that hardly tells the story. The jobless rate may be down from its recession peak
Poverty is as endemic today as it was when President Lyndon Johnson inaugurated the War on Poverty, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is offering sensible proposals to change things for the better. He would offer states block grants to create
The downing of Malaysia flight MH17 casts new light on just how inept and decadent the United States and Europe have become. Faced with Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and attempts to repeat in eastern Ukraine, the best Western Europe
Testifying before Congress, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Yellen cherry picked data on inflation by noting prices are up, on a year-over-year basis, less than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent. The Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index has accelerated since March
The economy is recovering from a harsher than normal winter, but the pace of growth the balance of this year and next will not create nearly enough decent jobs for the millions unemployed and recent graduates working at venues like
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will testify to Congress Tuesday and Wednesday about the economy and future fed policy. We won’t learn much about either, because the Fed refuses to recognize the facts on the ground. Its policymaking committee recently
Stocks may be trading near record levels, but the bull market still has plenty of room to run. Changes in technology and the economy that permit businesses to use capital far more efficiently will likely drive equities much higher. In
Stocks may be trading near record levels, but the bull market still has plenty of room to run. Changes in technology and the economy that permit businesses to use capital far more efficiently will likely drive equities much higher. In
Americans keep hoping for a robust recovery — one that delivers better paying jobs and decent returns on retirement savings. Changes in technology and the economy may require that never happens, and government efforts to improve conditions often multiply the
The economy added 288,000 jobs in June. Overall jobs creation has improved in 2014, but it remains far short of the 390,000 needed each month to keep up with population growth and genuinely reduce unemployment, and well less than the
Thursday, the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 211,000 jobs in May. In line with the pace so far this year, that is far short of what is needed to keep up with population growth and genuinely
Inflation is soaring, and the Federal Reserve is looking away. It has printed trillions of dollars to save big banks from their financial crisis debauchery and to keep interest rates low to spur economic recovery, but those have not improved
In today’s America, I can’t be both an economist and a liberal. Economists should be bound by facts and reason. And I can’t do that and embrace liberal positions on the minimum wage, climate change, and gender discrimination. Raising prices
The U.S. economy is set to take off. Scarred by the financial crisis but on their feet again, consumers will lead the economy to growth in the range of 3 percent through the end of 2015. The Commerce Department reported
Buffeted by slow growth and too few jobs, Americans now have to deal with more inflation. In May, consumer prices rose at more than a 4 percent annual pace, and inflation has been heating up the last several months. Rapid growth
U.S. foreign policy is failing. Russia is pushing into Ukraine and threatening Eastern Europe; China is bullying Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam in the East and South China Seas; and terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa can be
