Category: Economy

Arizona, Nevada Governors Sound Alarm on California Governor’s Gasoline Proposal

The Center Square

The Democratic governor of Arizona and Republican governor of Nevada signed a bipartisan letter warning against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gasoline refinery proposal they say could result in gasoline supply shortages and raise gasoline prices.

“It is evident that increased regulatory burdens on refiners and forced supply shortages will result in higher costs for consumers in all of our states,” wrote Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo in their letter to Newsom. “With both of our states reliant on California pipelines for significant amounts of our fuel, these looming cost increases and supply shortages are of tremendous concern to Arizona and Nevada.”

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Commentary: Kamala Harris’ War on Housing

American Greatness
Kamala Harris

As Kamala Harris campaigns to become the most powerful person in the world, her detractors claim, among other things, that she has no idea how to manage the economy. She has certainly demonstrated that with her recent pronouncements. Even her usual supporters have been critical of her economic policy suggestions. Price controls on groceries. $25,000 grants for first-time homebuyers. A tax on unrealized capital gains. But while Harris backpedals from some of her most economically illiterate schemes, it’s only to attract more votes. Don’t be fooled. She hasn’t changed.

To demonstrate Harris’s long-standing record of waging economic war on productive citizens, consider her actions while serving as California’s Attorney General. She used that office to support policies that made homes unaffordable. Those policies roll out from California and infect the rest of the country.

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Generous Benefit Plans Leading Government Employees to Be Nearly 40 Percent More Expensive than Private Sector

Daily Caller News Foundation
Office Work

State and local government workers were roughly 40% more expensive to employ than private sector employees in the second quarter of 2024, largely due to generous benefit plans, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Tuesday.

Total compensation costs, including wages, salaries and benefits, averaged $43.94 per hour for private sector employees, approximately 40% less than the $61.37 average hourly compensation cost for state and local government workers, according to the BLS data. The disparity was primarily driven by pricey government benefit plans, with costs averaging $13.04 per hour for private industry workers, over 80% less than the $23.57 per hour in benefit costs for their state and local government counterparts.

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Inflation Rate Inches Down as Economy Continues to Slow

Daily Caller News Foundation
Grocery Shopping

Inflation fell in August amid fears of an economic slowdown following two straight months of disappointing job gains, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Wednesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of the price of everyday goods, increased 2.5% on an annual basis in August and rose 0.2% month-over-month, compared to a 2.9% year-over-year rate in July, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, rose 3.2% year-over-year in August, compared with 3.2% in July.

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Commentary: Watch Out for Rent-Control Madness

Admin
People Moving

For the latest example of why “local control” is no kind of governing principle, I present readers with the example of Proposition 33 — a rent-control measure that Californians will consider on the November ballot. Its supporters — a who’s who of left-wing activist groups and mainstream progressive organizations such as the California Democratic Party — claim that the measure merely allows local governments to impose rent controls tailored to local conditions.

Indeed, the so-called Justice for Renters Act features this simple text: “The state may not limit the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” If voters approve the initiative, it would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Control Act. That 1995 law responded to concerns by landlords at the growing movement by local governments to impose some of the strictest rent-setting laws in the nation.

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U.S. Toolmaker Stanley Black and Decker Under Fire for DEI Hiring and LGBTQ Lobbying, Faces Boycott

Just the News
DeWalt Drill by Stanley Black and Decker

U.S. toolmaker Stanley Black and Decker is under fire for embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies that conservatives describe as “woke,” which could lead to a boycott of the company’s products.

According to a new report from the advocacy group Consumers’ Research, Stanley Black and Decker, which owns the DeWalt, Black and Decker and Stanley brands, is seeking to increase minority suppliers by at least 10 percent by next year, donate about $10.5 million to “racial equity” organizations, and require “equity training” sessions for senior level employees.

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Discount Retailer Big Lots Announces Doors Will Stay Open Through Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Sale to Nexus Capital Management

Just the News
Big Lots store

Big Lots said Monday the retail discount chain is filing for bankruptcy, citing such factors as high inflation and interest rates.

The company is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in which Nexus Capital Management, a private equity firm, will acquire most of Big Lots’ locations and oversee its operations when the process is complete, according to the bankruptcy filing.

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Mine Land Cleanup in Appalachia Faces Federal Delays, Capacity Limits

The Center Square
Abandoned Land Mine

Even though federal money to reclaim mine lands in Appalachia has been slow to arrive, some states have made progress on improvement plans from a generation ago nonetheless.

Efforts have turned watersheds into fisheries when they were dead 30 years ago. And some states have streamlined the reclamation process, supporting local groups limited by a lack of manpower.

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Feds: Radioactive Waste Shipment to Wayne County Poses No Environmental Threat

The Center Square
Niagara Falls Storage Site

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers addressed concerns voiced by Michigan lawmakers about the shipment of radioactive waste to Wayne Disposal, assuring the public all proper safety measures are in place and that environmental surveillance will continue throughout the transport process.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, had submitted a series of questions to the USACE, asking for details about its unexpected plan to ship 6,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and concrete and 4,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater from the Niagara Falls Storage Site to Wayne County.

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Commentary: Kamala Harris Would Shatter America’s Labor Market Already Showing Cracks

Daily Caller News Foundation
Kamala Harris

Friday’s jobs report reveals accelerating weakness in the American economy. Only 142,000 jobs were created last month, below expectations. Half of new positions were created in the unproductive government or quasi-government healthcare and social services sectors.

A record 8.2 million Americans have second jobs. So far this year, the number of unemployed Americans has increased by one million.

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Economy Added Fewer Jobs than Expected in August as Unemployment Falls

Daily Caller News Foundation
Construction Worker

Economists anticipated that the country would add 161,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in August compared to the 114,000 added in initial estimates for July, and that the unemployment rate would fall to 4.2%, according to MarketWatch. The job gains follow a disappointing July report and a downward revision of over 800,000 jobs that the Biden administration had claimed to create between April 2023 and March 2024.

Meanwhile, previously reported job gains for July were revised down from 114,000 to 89,000 while gains for June were lowered from 179,000 too 118,000.

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Casey Brings ‘Greedflation’ Claim to Pennsylvania Campaign Trail Despite Fact Checks, McCormick’s ‘Bobflation’ Website

Tom Pappert
Bob Casey

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) on Tuesday reportedly repeated his dubious “greedflation” claim at an event in Lawrence County despite being contradicted in multiple fact checks, and after his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, released his campaign’s “Casey Inflation Calculator” charting price hikes during his time in office.

Casey told attendees of a lunch held by the Lawrence County Democrats on Tuesday that companies “jack up prices and we’re supposed to just shut up about it,” according to New Castle News.

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As Prices Soar, Americans Forced to Choose Between Food and Energy

American Greatness
People in grocery checkout line

With inflation remaining stubbornly high, many Americans have been forced to choose whether to pay for more groceries to feed their families, or to pay their energy bills to keep their families cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

According to CBS News, this new trend has been referred to as “energy poverty,” when Americans are unable to pay their energy bills or otherwise afford utilities. On average, households that spend 6 percent of their income or more on energy bills alone are considered to be in “energy poverty.” Currently, 1 in 7 American households spend approximately 14 percent of their income on energy.

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Major Automaker Abandons 2030 Electric Vehicle Target as Market Woes Continue

Daily Caller News Foundation
Volvo Electric SUV

Swedish automaker Volvo Cars said on Wednesday that it is scrapping its goal of going fully electric by 2030 as the electric vehicle (EV) market continues to struggle.

The company announced it now aims for between 90 percent and 100 percent of its cars to be fully electric or plug-in hybrids by the end of the decade, with the remainder being “mild,” non-plug-in hybrids, a company press release stated. Volvo’s backpedaling comes amid lower-than-expected consumer demand for EVs and a recent industry shift away from electrification.

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New Poll Finds 90 Percent Say Home Ownership Is Out of Reach

The Center Square
Couple Looks for a Home

Only 10 percent of those surveyed in a new poll said the “American dream” of homeownership is affordable, with others citing 40-year high inflationary costs, 23-year-high interest rates, limited supply of affordable housing and earnings that have eroded because of inflation.

According to a Wall Street Journal/NORC poll of 1,502 U.S. adults, the sentiment was consistent across gender and party lines, with young Americans expressing the greatest despair, saying they’ve “been priced out of homeownership.”

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Biden Admin Gives Millions to High-Speed Rail Project That Has Been Stalled for Years

Daily Caller News Foundation
Amtrak

The Biden administration granted over $60 million to Amtrak for a stalling Texas high-speed rail project that has been failing to acquire private investment, according to grant records.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) granted $63.9 million on August 2 to Amtrak for the Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor project, which has been mired by delays since 2022 under private railroad company Texas Central, with top executives resigning as the initial private funding ran dry. The grant comes after a long line of funding from the federal government to Amtrak in pursuit of high-speed rail, with the FRA last granting $500,000 for the Texas project in December 2023 to study a Dallas-Houston high-speed rail connection.

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Listeria Outbreak from Boar’s Head Deli Meat Claims Life of One Tennessean

Kaitlin Housler
Bolar Head Ham

One Tennessean died from the effects of a Listeria outbreak linked to the recalled 7.2 million pounds of Boar’s Head deli meats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced this week.

Since July 26, Boar’s Head has recalled 71 of its ready-to-eat meat and poultry products with “sell by” dates ranging from July 29 through October 17.

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Pushback on VP Kamala Harris’ Tax Proposal Plan Grows as Costs Are Counted

Just the News
Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris’s tax proposal plan is getting significant pushback from Congress members and others as the costs of tax hikes on the American people across the political spectrum are being examined.

Upon a closer look at Harris’s tax proposals, an economist, a New York Times reporter, a small business owner advocate, and members of Congress all voiced their concerns over what the plan entails. Most of them note how the economy will be negatively impacted by her plan and the real-world implications for everyday Americans.

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Report: Ohio Wage Hikes Can’t Keep Up with Inflation

The Center Square
Food Workers

A new report shows a massive dump of federal taxpayer dollars into Ohio following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 recession led to the largest wage increase in more than 40 years, but it wasn’t enough for workers to keep up with the “effective” rate of inflation.

Policy Matters Ohio’s State of Working Ohio report, scheduled to be released Tuesday afternoon, showed the federal COVID-19 recovery plan put Ohioans back to work at a level with prerecession numbers and gave jobseekers their pick of potential jobs.

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Fact Checker Dings Sen. Bob Casey for ‘Mostly False’ Claim ‘Greedflation’ Caused Higher Prices in Pennsylvania

Tom Pappert
Bob Casey

Fact checking website PolitiFact on Wednesday issued a “Mostly False” rating for the claim by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) that higher prices paid by Pennsylvanians are caused by “greedflation,” or corporate greed.

The fact checker reported that while prices have sometimes increased higher than inflation since 2019, “most economists” told it “rising costs for goods and labor have been inflation’s primary drivers” of higher costs, while Federal Reserve regional banks have published studies which “cast doubt on the role of corporate greed in driving inflation.”

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Dave McCormick Campaign Launches ‘Bobflation’ Calculator to Show Inflated Costs Under Biden-Harris, Sen. Bob Casey

Tom Pappert
Bob Casey

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick on Wednesday released its Casey Inflation Calculator, a website known as Bobflation.com that charts price increases for popular Pennsylvania purchases and everyday necessities.

“Pennsylvania’s iconic food and experiences are becoming increasingly unaffordable because of Kamala Harris and Bob Casey’s reckless spending,” said McCormick in a statement. “See for yourself just how much prices have increased with our Casey Cost Calculator.”

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Commentary: The Government Is Making Housing Shortage Worse

Admin
Home Buyer

Nearly every city across the country is experiencing some of the highest home prices and rents in decades. And in Tennessee, a recent statewide listening tour by the Beacon Center confirmed that housing remains the top concern among voters. So it’s no surprise that politicians on the left and right—from Vice President Kamala Harris to Tennessee’s attorney general—are talking quite a bit about housing prices.

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China Poised to Cut Off US Military from Key Mineral as America’s Own Reserves Lay Buried Under Red Tape

Daily Caller News Foundation
Mineral mining

China is planning to restrict exports of a key mineral needed to make weapons while a U.S. company that could be reducing America’s reliance on foreign suppliers is languishing in red tape, energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Chinese government announced on August 15 that it will restrict exports of antimony, a critical mineral that dominates the production of weapons globally and is essential for producing equipment like munitions, night vision goggles and bullets that are essential to national security, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Perpetua Resources, an American mining company, has been navigating red tape for years to develop a mine in Valley County, Idaho,  that could decrease reliance on the Chinese supply of antimony, but the slow permitting process is getting in the way, energy experts told the DCNF.

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Tennessee A.G. Jonathan Skrmetti Joins Federal Antitrust Lawsuit Alleging Algorithmic Fixing of Rental Prices

Tom Pappert
House for Rent

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Friday joined seven other states and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in an antitrust lawsuit accusing the property management software company RealPage of using its service to algorithmically fix rental prices across the United States, allowing them to form a monopoly that allows rental owners to collaboratively set prices in a bid to avoid market pressures to lower rent.

The DOJ confirmed the legal action on Friday, alleging RealPage is engaged in an “unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing and to monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software that landlords use to price apartments.”

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One in Three Jobs Biden Admin Announced over Course of a Year Didn’t Actually Exist, Revisions Show

Daily Caller News Foundation
Work Meeting

Over a third of the more than 3 million jobs the Biden administration announced were added in initial reports between April 2023 and March 2024 did not actually exist, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Including monthly revisions, the Biden administration overstated the number of jobs in the U.S. economy by 1.18 million in the year through March, accounting for approximately 36% of the 3.24 million jobs initially claimed, according to data from the BLS calculated by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The massive revision, along with a disappointing July jobs report that showed the U.S. economy adding 61,000 fewer nonfarm payroll jobs than economists anticipated, has heightened fears of a recession.

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Taxpayer-Funded Group Offers $30,000 to Illegal Aliens to Buy Homes

American Greatness
Home Buyers

A far-left organization that has received funding from taxpayer dollars is offering up to $30,000 to illegal aliens so that they can purchase homes in the United States.

As the Daily Caller reports, the Hacienda Community Development Corp. (Hacienda CDC) is participating in a down payment assistance program in Oregon called “Camino a Casa.” The initiative is explicitly only available for non-citizens, while American citizens are ineligible. The $30,000 handouts are branded as down payment assistance for illegals who are attempting to purchase new homes.

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Commentary: Solar Company Benefiting from IRA Has Forced Labor Problem

Admin
Solar Panel Installation

Vice President Kamala Harris was “proud to cast the tie-breaking vote” for the Inflation Reduction Act. Would she be proud if her administration’s solar subsidies fund supported forced labor in China?

That may be the case with Hanwha Qcells, a South Korean solar company operating in Georgia. Bloomberg recently reported that two Chinese suppliers of the company obtained polysilicon for solar panel components from companies sanctioned by the U.S. government for employing forced Uyghur labor. Hanwha and their Qcells plant leadership deny these allegations, but Bloomberg reports “that the company offers assurances but no public details of its polysilicon sourcing.”

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Indiana Issues Cease and Desist Order Against BlackRock, Alleging Misleading ESG Statements

Just the News
Diego Morales

Indiana’s state securities regulator issued a cease and desist order against BlackRock Thursday, accusing the investment giant of fraudulent actions related to its ESG products and offerings. The company denies the allegations.

According to the Indiana Securities Division, BlackRock has repeatedly made false and misleading statements to Indiana investors with regards to the company’s ESG products. Indiana accuses BlackRock of pushing ESG factors on portfolio companies and informing clients they would see better long-term returns on their investments through ESG-backed funds. Though, according to the order, there was little to no evidence to substantiate the claim.

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Report Challenges Harris’ Assertion That Higher Food Prices Equal Corporate Greed

The Center Square
Grocery Shopping

Rising grocery store prices over the last few years aren’t the fault of farmers or “greedy” corporations, a conservative North Carolina research organization concludes in a new documentary series and report.

Instead, higher energy prices and more regulations are the culprit, according to the John Locke Foundation documentary series Sowing Resilience.

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Hennepin County Board Approves Pay Rate Increases for Themselves and Other Elected Officials

Admin
Hennepin County Board of Commissioners

The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, the Hennepin County sheriff, and the Hennepin County attorney are set to receive significant pay rate increases in the next two years after a pair of 6-0 votes from the county commissioners.

On Tuesday, the commissioners held one vote to increase their own pay rates and a separate vote to increase the pay rates of the county sheriff and county attorney. One commissioner, Debbie Goettel, was not present for the votes.

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McMaster Signs Tax Credits for South Carolina Railroads and Abandoned Buildings

The Center Square
Henry McMaster

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed a measure to extend tax credits for revitalizing abandoned buildings and South Carolina short-line railroads.

S. 1021, which the Republican governor “ceremonially” signed on Wednesday, extends the provisions of the South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act that were set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025. The credits now run through 2035 and increase the maximum credit a taxpayer may earn in a year from $500,000 to $700,000.

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Michigan Attorney General Admits Michigan’s Minimum Wage Increase Poses Difficulties

The Center Square
Dana Nessel

Republican lawmakers are not the only ones raising concerns about Michigan’s minimum wage changes. Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a motion with the state’s Supreme Court, asking for guidance on how to implement inflation adjustments.

Nessel specifically pointed out how the court’s broad language in its July ruling could lead to five possible options for when and how to adjust the minimum wage over time, with the state Department of Treasury’s approach and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s approach also at odds with each other.

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Southwest Airlines to Add Three New Nonstop Flight Routes from Nashville International Airport

Kaitlin Housler
Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines announced this week that it is expanding service at Nashville International Airport (BNA) to offer three new nonstop flight routes to Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Indianapolis, beginning next year.

Daily flights will commence from BNA to the Indianapolis International Airport on March 6, 2025.

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Biden Admin Overcounted Job Growth Estimates by Nearly a Million

Daily Caller News Foundation
People working in an office

The federal government overestimated the number of jobs in the U.S. economy by 818,000 between April 2023 and March 2024, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday, stoking fears of a slowdown in the U.S. economy.

Economists at Goldman Sachs (GS) and Wells Fargo anticipated the government had overestimated job growth by at least 600,000 in that span, while economists at JPMorgan Chase had predicted a lesser decline of 360,000, according to Bloomberg. The downward revision follows a trend of the BLS overestimating the number of nonfarm payroll jobs added, with the cumulative number of new jobs reported in 2023 roughly 1.3 million less than previously thought as of February 2024.

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Ford Ditching Plans for Electric Vehicle SUV as Market Struggles Continue

Daily Caller News Foundation
Ford EV plant

Ford said Wednesday that it is canceling its plans to build a three-row electric SUV as the wider U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market continues to struggle.

The company announced that it expects to take up to $1.9 billion in write downs and other special charges related to its decision after losing billions of dollars on its EV product line in 2023. In addition to canceling its three-row electric SUV, Ford is also pushing back its plans to roll out an electric pickup truck model until 2027, a one-year setback.

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