Economy

U.S. Keeps Adding Jobs With Large Upward Revisions For Past Months’ Data Suggesting A Shifting Economy

American employers added 128,000 jobs last month, far above the expected 85,000. In addition, 95,000 more people were hired than initially estimated in August and September. This means that after revisions, monthly nonfarm job gains have averaged 176,000 over the past three months. These gains were seen in the face of employment declining by 42,000 in...

November 1, 2019

Energy & Environment

With Or Without Climate Change, California Will Burn, The Only Question Is: How Much?

California is blessed—and cursed—with a Mediterranean climate. The Golden State features long stretches of dry, low-humidity weather, with infrequent thunderstorms (except in its desert regions). Most of the state’s precipitation falls during the winter months. Before the first big late-year Pacific storm, California’s forests and coastal chaparral are often tinder-dry. Richard Henry Dana Jr., in...

October 29, 2019

Economy

What made me leave California for Texas — and why I have no regrets

Moving usually isn’t much fun — it’s hard, it can be expensive and, if you’re moving out of state, it can be a bit intimidating. But moving from California to Texas was the best thing that ever happened to my family. In 2011, along with my family, I was one of about 562,000 people who moved out of California (468,000 moved in). A...

October 23, 2019

Economy

Low-Tax States On A Job-Creating Streak, Supercharged By Trump Tax Cuts

The Tax Foundation’s 2020 State Business Tax Climate Index illustrates the states’ relative business … [+] THE TAX FOUNDATION The 27 states with the lightest tax burden on individuals continued to add jobs at double the rate of the 23 states with higher taxes since the federal tax cut was signed into law in December 2017....

October 22, 2019

Economy

America’s China blindspot — What ‘responsible’ investors must realize before it is too late

Most Americans would agree that the Chinese Communist Party isn’t a friend of workers’ rights, free speech, or corporate transparency. The challenge is that they rule China and control access to a potentially lucrative market. In the NBA’s case, this dilemma was front and center for the past week after the Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey expressed support for demonstrators in Hong...

October 16, 2019

Energy & Environment

California Recycling: Burn, Blackout, Blame, Repeat

After planned blackouts to reduce wildfire risk left almost 2 million people without power in Northern California, politicians and bureaucrats scrambled to lay blame. Blackouts have a powerfully toxic political legacy in California. In 2000 and 2001, a series of blackouts and price hikes amidst a botched partial deregulation of the electricity market was a...

October 15, 2019

Criminal Justice

U.S. Violent Crime Rate Down 5%, Showing President Trump’s Combination Of Law And Order And Criminal Justice Reform Go Together, Making America Safer

The FBI released its annual crime report a few days ago, showing the violent crime rate has dropped 4.6% since President Trump took office. Had the violent crime rate in 2018 remained at 2016 levels, almost 58,000 additional murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults would have occurred. The major property crime rate has also continued its steady...

October 10, 2019

Energy & Environment

The Lights Are Out in California, And That Was the Plan All Along

The power is out in Northern California. More than 1 million Californians are now without electricity, one of modern life’s essentials that is frequently taken for granted. The blackout was done on purpose—to prevent sparks from powerlines that could ignite deadly wildfires. Before planned blackouts are through in two or three days, as many as...

October 9, 2019

Energy & Environment

California’s Next Offshore Oil Spill Will Be Caused, Ironically, By The State’s War On Oil

California’s elected officials’ oil policy can be summed up as: leave it in the ground or under the ocean, and, if it must come into the state, don’t use pipeline or rail. The result of this policy is predictable—an increasing number of crude oil tankers are making their way to California from overseas to meet...

October 7, 2019

Taxes & Spending

Carl Icahn is leaving New York for Florida. (At age 83!) Why now? Here’s my theory

Carl Icahn, one of America’s most well-known investors, has summoned the movers, joining what, in an average year, adds up to almost a half-million New Yorkers looking for a better place to live. As with the largest share of former Empire Staters, Icahn is moving to Florida, a state with no personal income tax. Icahn...

October 5, 2019

Economy

74 Percent Of Conservative Californians Are Looking Into Leaving The State

More than half of California voters have thought about moving out of state, according to a new poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at U.C. Berkeley. A full 74 percent of the state’s very conservative voters say they’re looking into moving, and 84 percent of those cite California’s political culture as their rationale for leaving. Unsurprisingly,...

October 2, 2019

Economy

An Obama Judge Just Threw Out New York’s Lawsuit Against The Trump Tax Cut

A U.S. district judge today dismissed a lawsuit brought by Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and New York against the big tax cut signed into law by President Trump in December 2017. Judge J. Paul Oetken has been a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York since President Obama appointed him in 2011. The case, State...

October 1, 2019