Inflation is much worse than Washington seems willing to admit. With each month that goes by, however, the evidence is increasing—just like prices. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently more than doubled its inflation forecast for the year. Their new estimate is 4.8% for 2021, but the numbers are not adding...
Texas owes $7 billion to the U.S. Treasury’s Unemployment Trust Fund. Lawmakers here in Texas can pay off that balance entirely, without any interest charges, and without using any state funds. The only catch is that the Texas Legislature and governor would need to do so by Sept. 6, so that’s unlikely—but they can keep...
The August jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was well below expectations, with nonfarm payrolls adding just 235,000 jobs, less than a third of the consensus estimate. The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.2% while the labor force participation rate was unchanged at 61.7%. The number of unemployed declined to 8.4...
By administrative fiat, federal bureaucrats in the Biden administration at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently expanded food stamp handouts by almost 30%. Yes, you read that correctly, your taxes are going to go up to pay for expenditures your elected members didn’t vote on. And the expansion of these handouts from the Supplemental...
How the mighty have fallen. America was on track to be not only energy independent, but energy dominant. Fast forward about a year, and the Biden administration has thrown an anchor around the neck of America’s oil and gas producers, while simultaneously begging OPEC to increase output. What created this ironic predicament? America has unparalleled potential in...
Officials called the myriad of government measures over the last 18 months, supposedly to deal with the pandemic, “temporary,” but that qualifier may no longer apply. As evidence, look no further than the recent extension of the student loan repayment moratorium. Thanks to the freeze on federal student loan payments and other costly government handouts,...
June’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics comfortably surpassed expectations, with non-farm payrolls increasing by 943,000, compared with an expected increase of 870,000. The unemployment rate fell from 5.9% to 5.4% with the number of unemployed falling by 782,000 to 8.7 million. The Labor Force Participation Rate increased slightly to 61.7%. Highlighted Sectors...
The prognosticators were wrong again about the nation’s economy in the second quarter, and poor policies explain the disappointment. From April to June, real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.5% at an annualized rate—about one-fourth slower than the 8.4% some expected. In normal times, a 6.5% growth rate would be phenomenal, but these aren’t...
President Biden and Congressional Democrats have proposed roughly $6 trillion in new spending over a decade of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. To put this into perspective, this exceeds the economic output of every country except the U.S. and China, matches the $6 trillion authorized for COVID-related items since the pandemic—with nearly $1.5 trillion unspent—and exceeds the...
CNBC recently published an article whose original title demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding about inflation. The wording was so misinformed that it prompted intense criticism and CNBC changed the article’s title. It originally read “The upside to inflation: rising wages” and was changed to “It’s not certain rising wages will be enough to outpace inflation.” Ironically,...
History repeats itself, and at milestone intervals. It was 100 years ago that President Warren Harding called for a return to normalcy. His vice president and successor, Calvin Coolidge, prickled at this loose expansion of the English language, but agreed with the sentiment. After a series of traumatic events for the nation, including the Spanish...
It happens on the first Tuesday of every month. Bidders gather at the west entrance steps of the Smith County Courthouse, looking for bargains. At 10 a.m., the sales commence—properties are auctioned off to pay the taxes owed on them. Some are vacant lots and some are homes. All were seized from their owners over...