MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012 ECONOMICS: Federal Funds to Train the Jobless Are Drying Up http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/business/economy/federal-funds-to-train-jobless-are-drying-up.html With the economy slowly reviving, an executive from Atlas Van Lines recently visited Louisville, Ky., with good news: the company wanted to hire more than 100 truck drivers ahead of the summer moving season. But a usually reliable source … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: April 2012
BLS Reports Slower Job Growth Last Month
Payroll employment rose by 120,000 jobs in March with the unemployment rate falling slightly to 8.2 percent, according to the report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Growth is always good news, but a look behind the numbers shows that this kind of growth is mediocre at best. Despite the slight increase in … Continue reading
Damaging Effects of Denying Expansion
The Keystone XL pipeline could have provided Americans more economic, energy, and job security. However, in January 2012, President Obama announced he would not permit TransCanada to build a $7 billion pipeline from Alberta, Canada across international borders to the US Gulf Coast. Since then, Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has turned to China to … Continue reading
Weekly Graphic: Government Spending – 40 Year Comparison
Data from CBO 2012. All numbers are in FY 2005 dollars adjusted for inflation. © Joseph Chrisman Continue reading
Economic Daily Outlook
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2012 ECONOMICS: Europe’s Markets Are Tested Anew http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304072004577325611589982858.html New strains surfaced in European markets as a slide in the euro forced Switzerland’s central bank to intervene in currency markets and Spanish bond yields climbed to their highest level this year. While trading was thin ahead of the Easter break, traders said … Continue reading
Economy / Fiscal policy / Healthcare / Politics / Tax
Occupy entitlements! And the tax code!
By Will Portman The Occupy movement has brought income inequality to the forefront of the national political discussion over the past year, even if both the movement and the issue have faded in recent months. Occupy protestors are concerned about the growing wealth gap in the U.S., pointing to studies like the recent Congressional Budget Office … Continue reading
Mexico: 3 months away from the election of Enrique Peña Nieto
Mexico’s Presidential Election is less than two months away, and it appears that Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will be the winner. Peña Nieto is a young, charismatic former Mexico State governor. His competition for the Mexican presidency is Josefina Vásquez Mota of the National Action Party (PAN) and Andres Manuel … Continue reading
Economic Daily Outlook
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012 ECONOMICS: Markets Fear End of Stimulus http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304072004577324130797553106.html Fears that the central banks of Europe and the U.S. may soon end efforts to support financial markets as well as fresh concerns about the health of Europe’s weakest countries drove down stock markets around the world Wednesday. European Central Bank President Mario … Continue reading
Colombia: Hostages released, peace talks far from imminent
Colombians at home and abroad got some great news this week. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) kept their word and released what it says were its last military and police hostages. These ten men suffered through between 12 and 14 years as captives of the FARC-EP in Colombia’s dense jungles. … Continue reading
What America Should Learn About Hispanics
Much of the tragedy that is the loss of 17-year old Trayvon Martin’s life has become politicized in the media. There is an overarching and underlying racial narrative that has been present from the beginning of the coverage of the young man’s death. Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenage, lost his life as a result of … Continue reading
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