January’s jobs report showed better-than-expected growth, with 467,000 nonfarm jobs added last month. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 4.0%, and the labor force participation rate climbed to 62.2%. The number of unemployed increased 194,000 to 6.5 million. There are now 602,000 more unemployed people than in February 2020, the last month before...
The first offshore wind farm in the United States was supposed to have signaled a turning point in the green energy revolution. Instead, officials have spent the last five years mired in equipment failures and struggling to respond to concerns about potential environmental damage. Block Island is Solyndra all over again—except this time, wasted tax...
The idea of being alone evokes a special kind of dread for many people. Reams have been written on how to avoid this fate, and those who can’t tend to earn our sympathy. Unless, that is, they’re cut off from meaningful human contact because they’re one of the thousands of federal inmates held in solitary...
President Joe Biden’s poll numbers have been plummeting, and the mishandling of the economy may be the primary reason. With inflation raging at a four-decade high, it’s understandable that only 33% of Americans are satisfied with the economy. If you’re having trouble making it from paycheck to paycheck these days, you’re not alone. Families’ budgets...
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently mocked the idea that soft-on-crime policies have negative consequences, saying, “What does that even mean?” In short, soft-on-crime means a return to lawlessness, à la the Wild West, and all the costs that come with it. True to form, California has been leading the charge in ignoring or...
The outrage over President Joe Biden’s ridiculous comments in Georgia last month lingers. Condemning those who oppose a federal takeover of state elections as racist was not a gaff. He was reading from a speech, which means that both the president and his team believe that the strong majorities of Texans in both parties who...
Teaching is hard work. It always has been, and in many ways, it’s only gotten harder. I taught Latin (and occasionally Greek) in classical schools for about 10 years. I was also a PE teacher, quiz bowl coach, lunchroom monitor and club sponsor. I understand that it’s more than a job—it’s a calling. Classical education,...
With both early voting and the anniversary of Texas’ catastrophic blackouts coming up, and another potentially dicey winter storm on the way this week, the grid is on the forefront of many Texans’ minds. In a recent Dallas Morning News op-ed, one commentator urged voters to use electric reliability measures as a rubric for casting...
For the last 22 years, every January has been dedicated to raising awareness of human trafficking. As we use this month to rededicate ourselves to erradicating the evil of human trafficking, it is important to recognize that children in the foster care system are at especially high risk of victimization. According to a Florida study,...
With increasing attention being paid to the negative consequences of so-called environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing—which means selecting clients’ investments based on political rather than financial criteria—many hoped BlackRock’s annual letter to CEOs would signal a shift away from activism and back toward fiduciary responsibility. Sadly, chairman and CEO Larry Fink’s letter offered no solace for the...
Texas continues to recover from the shutdown recession of 2020. The state has made strong progress toward a full recovery, especially compared to other states. But it has much room for improvement by many metrics before we’ll see the robust pre-shutdown prosperity. In February 2020, Texas had low unemployment and relatively high labor force participation....
Introduction Alaska’s economy and Alaskans’ livelihoods were hit particularly hard by the government shutdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and Alaskans are struggling to recover. But businesses are now open, employment is slowly improving, and oil prices are up, which has resulted in the state’s Department of Revenue substantially increasing its revenue forecast by $2.2...