The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its 2018 data for fatal occupational injuries. As with many government reports, much of the data reflects common sense with a few interesting outliers. In 2018, 5,250 people sustained fatal injuries at work. To put that into perspective, an estimated 609,640 Americans died of cancer in 2018, 116 times as many...
Greenhouse gas negotiations in Madrid adjourned after two weeks without an agreement, leaving delegates to jet back home in failure. In response, an executive with the Environmental Defense Fund admonished nations to go their own way on carbon markets, setting up rules for “international emissions trading.” A U.N. report released last month said greenhouse gas emissions must...
American employers added 266,000 jobs in November, far above the 180,000 expected by economists, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, matching a 50-year low. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the employment numbers this morning in their monthly release. Employment rebounded by 54,000 in manufacturing following last month’s decline of 43,000. Most of this...
The numbers are good—and suggest our nation’s economic expansion continues apace. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that the number of people who were unemployed at any time in 2018 as a proportion of the number of persons who worked or looked for work—called the “work-experience unemployment rate”—was 7.8%, down by 0.8%...
Amidst a raging Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a “Proclamation of Thanksgiving” on October 3, 1863, 74 years to the day after President George Washington issued his first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation. Prior to Lincoln’s proclamation, states, mostly in the North, would mark their own Thanksgiving commemorations. The concept for a national Thanksgiving celebrated annually...
The current economic expansion is 10 years and five months old and showing little signs of ending. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Wednesday that the third quarter grew at a 2.1% annual rate vs. the previously estimated 1.9%. Preliminary data from the fourth quarter looks steady as well. The good economic news comes amid widely...
California’s population is 38% larger than Texas’, but since 2008, Texas has added about 100,000 … [+] TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION, DATA FROM THE U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW), the San Francisco-based financial services firm that pioneered low-cost stock trades, is moving to Texas. The announcement follows news yesterday that Charles Schwab will...
California is again facing widespread blackouts. Politicians are scrambling to assign blame to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) a heavily regulated utility that can only do what the politically appointed regulators say it can do. In recent years this has meant building a bunch of solar and wind projects, while decommissioning reliable sources of power and...
In 1975, at the height of New York City’s financial crisis, President Ford announced he would deny federal aid to help the city avoid bankruptcy. The Daily News ran an iconic headline the next day: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” Today the headline might read: “NEW YORK TO MILLIONAIRES: DROP DEAD.” The latest example of New York’s politicians bitterly...
Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, was on Fox News defending his city’s homeless policies Tuesday during an interview with Bill Hemmer. Last summer, the all-Democratic 10-member Austin City Council voted to lift the city’s ban on sleeping or camping on public property, such as sidewalks and parks – except for City Hall itself. Immediately following the vote, Austin’s...
In “Can You Still #Resist When Your State’s On Fire? A postcard from the Californiapocalypse,” Amy Wilentz, a journalist, writer, and English professor at the University of California, Irvine, details for The New York Times a truthy series of myths about California’s fiery, electric-less travails. She establishes her credentials at the onset by letting her...
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas – once a rising star in the crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls – withdrew from the race Friday after belatedly realizing he couldn’t become president simply by attacking President Trump without offering a better alternative. Although he joined the chorus of Democrats denouncing Trump with ever-growing ferocity and embraced full-blown Trump Derangement...