Subsidies for wind and solar have long distorted Texas’s electricity market, threatening higher prices and greater likelihood of blackouts and 'demand reduction' events. The April 2 piece, Texas Targets the Free Market, by California Policy Center president Will Swaim, misses the mark. Mr. Swaim's instincts are right; markets are ...

The Fraser Institute is out with its new yearly assessment of Economic Freedom in North America. Fraser, based in British Columbia, Canada, ranks both nations and states internationally and in North America for their economic freedom, measuring factors such as tax rates, government spending, and labor laws.
Fraser found that the top five ...

Every March, when the weather in Texas is mild (except for those thunderstorms) and the Mexican free-tailed bats return to Austin, South by Southwest (SXSW) dominates Texas’ capital city for 10 days. But with an announcement on Friday, the annual tech, film and music gathering that was slated to run from March 13 to the 22 was canceled for ...

After 31 years in California, making a good living in commercial real estate, John Ghiselli had enough. His youngest child was out of high school and he was free to move where he wanted to with minimal disruption to his family life. He chose Texas. And he’s hoping you will, too—he’ll even help. Ghiselli wasn’t ready to retire. And in ...

John Merline, writing in Issues and Insights notes the elite left’s “apoplectic fit when President Donald Trump started talking about dishwashers at his Milwaukee rally this week.” This isn’t the first time Trump talked dishwashers and it likely won’t be the last. Republican electeds and their consultants have been openly fretting ...

The 2019 U-Haul state migration index is out, and the top states Americans are moving to are no surprise—Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington. These are states with light state and local tax burdens. Conversely, four of the top five states people are fleeing—Illinois, California, Michigan, Massachusetts ...

California’s Assembly Bill 5 just went into effect. With some exceptions, the law takes aim at the new gig economy and independent contractors, forcing businesses to choose between hiring contractors as employees or laying them off. A week before Christmas, Vox Media’s SB Nation, a sports website, sent notice to some 200 of its ...

President Trump signed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act into law on December 22, 2017. The tax cut, combined with billions in federal regulatory relief, reinvigorated the economic expansion which is now in its 126th month, making it the longest recovery in U.S. history. While the tax reform law cut taxes for most individual taxpayers and ...

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 ...

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 ...

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% ...

California's population is 38% larger than Texas', but since 2008, Texas has added about 100,000 ... + more private sector jobs with its job growth rate 54.1% higher than California's. Texas Public Policy Foundation, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsCharles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW), the San Francisco-based financial services firm ...

Prior to 2016, a case might have been made that the job growth advantage enjoyed by the low-tax ... + states, which Texas being the largest, what driven by high oil prices - subsequent job gains after oil's decline appear to rebut this claim, with the 2017 tax cut being the likely driver. Texas Public Policy Foundation American employers ...

The Tax Foundation's 2020 State Business Tax Climate Index illustrates the states' relative business ... + tax burdens.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. ...

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 the state’s need for ...

Job growth in the 27 states with low state and local taxes continues to double the pace of employment gains compared to their high-tax peers. From December 2017, the month President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, through August 2019, the 27 states with the lowest taxes on individuals generated 3.77% more private sector ...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its Consumer Price Index update for August, showing prices rose 0.1% in August with prices up 1.7% from a year earlier before seasonal adjustment. This was a slowing of the pace of inflation from July when prices climbed 0.3%. Of note, given the highly publicized fears that U.S. tariffs on goods from ...

The four strongest large metropolitan areas for job seekers, with nonfarm employment up by at least 3% in the 12 months ending in July are Orlando, Florida; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Seattle, Washington, and; Houston, Texas. The top four large metropolitan areas with more than a million nonfarm workers are in states without an individual ...

According to newly published survey information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Americans born in the years 1957 to 1964 held an average of 12.3 jobs from age 18 to their 52. Lest you think that the latter part of the Baby Boom generation is composed of a bunch of job hoppers, BLS says that almost half of those 12.3 jobs ...

The federal government just released its latest state-level jobs report, showing private sector job growth remains concentrated in low-tax states. That has remained true since the 2017 tax cut limited the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT) to $10,000 per filing household. The 27 states, led by Texas, with average SALT deductions ...

Where you live has a huge effect on how much purchasing power your dollar has—and how far your paycheck truly goes. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was $4,690 in April. In Dallas, a similarly sized place would set a renter back $1,433 a month, less than one-third the cost in the City by the Bay. Renters in the ...

The issue of persistent poverty in many of America’s urban centers is once again in the news. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson commented this week that when, as pediatric neurosurgeon, he had a young patient from East Baltimore, he faced a “horrible dilemma,” when having to discharge patients back to homes, ...

Employers added 224,000 jobs in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than most economists expected. The nation’s unemployment rate was 3.7%, remaining at historic lows. The manufacturing sector saw 17,000 jobs added after four months of flat activity. This followed a strong run of an average of 22,000 manufacturing ...

The modest participation of our volunteer military in the Independence Daycelebration in our nation’s Capital has sparked debate. That’s both curious and troubling. This may be explained in light of a new Gallup Poll showing that Americans have the lowest pride in their nation since the question was asked in 2001, with Gallup noting, ...

Since President Trump signed the big tax cut and reform act in December 2017, the pace ofprivate-sector job creation in the nation’s 27 low-tax states has doubled that of their high-tax peers through May of 2019, according to data released today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing job growth is even higher with a ...

One of the joys of writing for the public is that, occasionally, the public contacts you. If it’s on Twitter, you learn not to take it personally—especially if the tweeter is anonymous. Same with email—sometimes the responses are supportive, sometimes they’re not. And almost always, anonymous comments tend towards the downright hateful or ...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its May jobsreport Friday morning, estimating that nonfarm payrolls went up 75,000 with the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.6%, remaining at low levels last seen in December 1969. The Hispanic unemployment rate remained at a record low of 4.2% in May while the unemployment rate for workers ...

Job growth has been running 80% stronger in low-tax states than in high-tax states since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 in December 2017. Understanding why holds important lessons for policy, economics, and politics. The new tax law scaled back the federal subsidy for high state and local taxes. Prior to the change in the ...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its April employment report this morning, showing continued robust growth in the job market with 263,000 jobs added in April. The official unemployment rate is now 3.6%, the lowest it has been since 1969. Notably, wages were up 3.2% from a year ago. With inflation remaining tame, real buying power ...

President Trump's tax and regulation cutting spurred economic growth with quarterly GDP running at 2.8% over the past 9 quarters compared to 1.9% in Obama's last 9. The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2% annual rate in the first quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Analysts expected a far slower growth rate of 2.3%. ...

Trump's economy has added manufacturing jobs at double the pace of government jobs, reversing the trend of Obama's last 27 months in office. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its March employment report this morning, estimating that employers added 196,000 nonfarm jobs. The official unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8%. ...

Since President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 into law in December 2017, private sector job growth in states with smaller state and local tax burdens has run 77% ahead of states with heavier tax loads from December 2017 to February 2019. Among its provisions, the new law limited state and local tax (SALT) deductions to $10,000 ...

The Texas Legislature is grappling with its biennial budget negotiations, with Wednesday expected to be a long night in the state’s House of Representatives. That’s where 307 spending amendments will be debated. There are three main issues at stake: overall spending, public education finance reform including teacher salaries, and property ...

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump consistently promised to revive America’s manufacturing economy. Trump’s focus on manufacturing brought out high-profile critics who scoffed at the notion. President Obama notably said in June 2016 that manufacturing jobs “are just not going to come back.” He said this at a time ...

Texas is one of seven states that doesn’t levy a personal income tax. And while Texas’ overall state and local tax burden is considered relatively light, putting Texas 15th on the Tax Foundation’s 2019 State Business Tax Climate Index, the Lone Star State’s property tax ranking is 37th, meaning that 36 other states have a smaller relative ...

A little more than a decade after California voters narrowly approved a ballot proposition to build an 800-mile high-speed rail system for $35 billion, with completion promised for next year, the project has been derailed by gross government incompetence and malfeasance. The remarkable (and very public) beginning of the end for the state-run ...

Federal statisticians are beginning to put a wrap on 2018, providing a clearer picture of the positive effects of President Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks. There are two sets of data that truly stand out: manufacturing job growth and the rate of private sector job growth in the states. Looking at the national jobs numbers, the first ...

The rural areas surrounding Beijing get cold during the winter, with an average low of 15 degrees Fahrenheit in January. To cope with the daily chill, millions of farmers and laborers have burned coal to keep warm. But the coal—especially coal burned in a home furnace—came at the cost of air pollution, not only in the province of Hebei, but ...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its December jobs report Friday morning, showing nonfarm employment was up by 312,000, stronger than analysts expected. The impressive jobs number, along with the Fed signaling patience on rate hikes, shook the stock market loose from its doldrums, with the Dow posting a 747-point gain. With ...

The historic passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a year ago set off a surge of hiring across America. Since then, private employers added some 2.4 million employees through November 2018, according to the employment report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today. Further, the federal state jobs report shows that low-tax states ...

For centuries, winning a war was largely a function of manpower, iron or steel, and will. The last time America fought an enemy with a larger economy was in the War of 1812. The British burned the White House to the ground in that scrape. But since the Civil War, America dominated those three basic categories and has the winning record to prove ...

This September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its first year-over-year monthly loss, 4.4 percent, since September 2009 when the index was off 13.3 percent from 12 months earlier.

In other news, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment increased by 142,000 in September, far lower than analysts expected. Further, the BLS made downward revisions to the previous two months totaling 59,000 fewer ...

Thursday's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) "joint employer" decision may revitalize union membership while increasing the cost of fast food—or, not.
In one fell swoop, the NLRB overturned decades of established precedent defining who is an employer. This matters because it allows unions to negotiate directly with the headquarters ...

For the fourth year running, California and Rhode Island earned an "F" in a massive survey of small business owners rating state and local governments' friendliness to small business . At the other end of the spectrum, also for the fourth year in a row, Texas and Utah earned an "A+" from ...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just released its latest employment report, announcing that the official unemployment rate declined to 5.3 percent with nonfarm payroll employment increasing by 223,000 in June. This is ostensibly good news for workers.
But, the official unemployment rate doesn't measure millions of out of work ...

'Inversion" is a word increasingly heard these days in Washington, D.C. In this case, instead of referring to a meteorological condition, inversion applies to tax law.

It occurs when U.S. corporations lower their taxes by buying an overseas company, then transferring their headquarters to the newly purchased foreign firm. ...