In what seems like a lifetime ago, state government finances across the nation were moving in divergent directions, with 28 states having replenished their fund balances above what they held before the onset of the recession in 2007. Meanwhile, states such as Pennsylvania and Illinois were dangerously low on fiscal reserves, with each state having...
The world as seen by Xi Jinping is different from it was in January 2016. At the time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was strong at home, as its power and prestige were growing abroad. Hong Kong was prosperous and quiescent. The “rebellious province of Taiwan” was ruled by President Ma Ying-Jeou, a politician favoring...
In a few short weeks, a virus with origins in China has brought the American economy to a near-halt. Public health officials, 16.5 million health-care workers, and tens of thousands of scientists are working overtime to reduce the fatalities, heal the sick, and find a cure. Congress reacted as only it knows how—by spending more than...
The Trump administration on Jan. 31 announced travel restrictions aimed at reducing the number of people coming to the United States from China to flatten the infection curve of the novel coronavirus that emerged out of Wuhan. The reaction from the People’s Republic of China and the American left was immediate: harsh criticism that President Donald...
The latest information on Coronavirus COVID-19, also known as the Wuhan Flu, from Johns Hopkins University shows widely varying numbers of confirmed cases and apparent mortality rates by nation. The People’s Republic of China, the virus’ epicenter, was reporting 81,058 cases as of March 17 with 3,230 deaths, with 4.0 percent of those diagnosed subsequently dying. Italy...
Every March, when the weather in Texas is mild (except for those thunderstorms) and the Mexican free-tailed bats return to Austin, South by Southwest (SXSW) dominates Texas’ capital city for 10 days. But with an announcement on Friday, the annual tech, film and music gathering that was slated to run from March 13 to the 22 was canceled...
President Trump signed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act into law in December 2017. It cut taxes for most Americans, especially those living in low-tax states. But higher wage earners living in high-tax states such as California and New York weren’t able to deduct more than $10,000 of state and local taxes (SALT) off of...
After the warmup contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, 14 states and the territory of American Samoa are voting on Super Tuesday. California and Texas will award 48 percent of the delegates that day. Providing some perspective to the size of these two states, their most-populous counties, Los Angeles (10.1 million) and Harris (4.7 million), have a combined...
There is an ongoing dust up involving the First Amendment, allegations of prohibited viewpoint discrimination and legislative immunity in the Texas Senate. It’s fascinating stuff for political scientists, political practitioners, and journalists. It started on Thursday, February 27, when a man testified at a Texas State Senate hearing wearing a t-shirt that said, “F**K the...
The narrow passage of a nearly $10 billion high speed rail plan in California marked a triumph of pay-to-play ballot box corporate cronyism—otherwise known in politics as pork. Groups ranging from train manufacturers to multinational construction companies to trade unions brought the government train idea to the California Legislature back in the mid-1990s. Initially intended...
The Dow is down 1,000. Gold is up $30.30 intraday and $101.70 in the past 30 days. And oil is down $2.79 to $50.59, a drop of 5.2%. Are the markets simply in a correction or are they signaling a recession? The market turmoil is linked to the deadly virus outbreak in China, where factories...
There’s no end to fun surveys that purport to measure patriotism among the states, with military enlistments often part of the criteria. However, using enlistment rates to gauge the regional willingness to volunteer for the armed forces betrays a common misunderstanding of the way the U.S. military operates. What matters is accessions to the military, not enlistments....