Perhaps no issue looms over American politics more than worsening inequality and the stunting of the road to upward mobility. However, inequality varies widely across America. Scholars of the geography of American inequality have different theses but on certain issues there seems to be broad agreement. An extensive examination by University of Washington geographer Richard...
Suppose you pick up your typical California newspaper and see headlines like, “State Unemployment Far Below the National Average” and “State Running Healthy Surplus; Gov. to Return Money to Taxpayers.” You just might find yourself paraphrasing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “Sutter Brown, I’ve got a feeling were not in California anymore.” (For those...
If anything positive can be said for the current tepid economic recovery, it has been very good to those who invest in the stock market or own real estate. Property owners have been able to reap higher rents and sale prices, and the stock market has soared while the overall economy has registered only modest...
Prior to the focus on self-esteem rather than academics in the education curriculum, California always ranked highest in the nation on student achievement tests. Today, California ranks close to the bottom. In the words of a wag, so goes California, so goes the nation. His insightful admonition has come to pass. US 15-year old students...
Debate rages over “income inequality”. CEOs makes hundreds or thousands of times more than workers. That is one aspect of income inequality. And it’s easily explained: The Fed’s inflation policies, bank bailouts, Fractional Reserve Lending, and crony capitalism are to blame. That blame is nonpartisan. Rather than attack the problem, “progressive” partisans howl over minimum wages....
It’s good to be in with the “in” crowd, especially when the “in” crowd is made up of Sacramento politicians capable of doling out millions of dollars in tax credits. Those currently in with the “in” crowd include any industry or company that can somehow attach “green” to their credentials. This helps explain why the...
California loves Tesla, the Los Angeles Times informs us, but the electric car company is ambivalent about the Golden State. In a blow to efforts to stem manufacturing job loss in California, the car company, based in Palo Alto, said it would definitely not build a new $5 billion “gigafactory” employing up to 6,500 workers in its...
The Greatest Generation bequeathed Baby Boomers a nation on the rise. After saving Western Civilization from fascism, they rebuilt a war-torn world, powered an economic renaissance, sent a man to the Moon, banished Jim Crow, cleaned up the environment, and won the Cold War. Of course, they made their share of mistakes. But every American...
Editor’s Note: We add one caveat to this excellent perspective from Hunter Lewis: If you are a crony capitalist in California, and you are lobbying the politicians for government contracts and favorable legislation – then you are also lobbying the public sector unions who control these politicians. At a minimum, most of California’s major corporations...
Editor’s Note: This article by Mike Shedlock leads off with a report on “drone transport ships,” but moves on to explore a provocative and very pertinent question: Are policies that create the “bubble economy,” i.e., artificially inflated asset values, partly motivated by a desire to counter the deflationary pressures caused by automation? We have explored...
The biggest issue facing the American economy, and our political system, is the gradual descent of the middle class into proletarian status. This process, which has been going on intermittently since the 1970s, has worsened considerably over the past five years, and threatens to turn this century into one marked by downward mobility. The decline...
Editor’s Note: This article by “Against Crony Capitalism” co-founder Hunter Lewis emphasizes again the irony of trying to legislate private sector compensation. Because the sentiment behind these policies – wanting to elevate the economic status of lower income workers and their communities – is inherently in conflict with the outcome. When minimum wages are raised,...
In colonial times, men and women were equal when it came to work. Both had chores and responsibilities from dawn to dusk. Women not only did housework, they milked cows, fed the pigs and chickens and helped tend the crops. Life was hard in colonial times. It made little difference whether the family lived in...
In the all important “Jobs Bowl”, far more important than the “Super Bowl” Illinois is losing out to Texas and Indiana. Via email from the Illinois Policy Institute: “The common refrain made against Texas by those who defend the status quo in Illinois is that the jobs being created in the Lone Star State are lower-paying...