State Representative Pryor Gibson (D-Anson) a couple of years ago declared that it was in the state’s best economic interest to “save” jobs, “even if they’re making buggy whips.” Such a ridiculous statement not only earned Gibson scorn from Civitas staffers, it exposed a broader mindset among politicians that “saving” jobs is somehow conducive to economic [...]
- Aug17
Class Envy Rhetoric Hurts the Poor
Gene Nichol, a professor of law at the UNC School of Law, and director of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity continues the N&O’s promotion of economic fallacies with this article in which he advocates for ending the Bush-era tax cuts on the highest income earners. Much of the article is diluted with Nichol’s stale, thoughtless, [...]
- Aug05
State Government is a Jobs Machine
Governor Perdue claims that “we are a jobs machine” here in North Carolina. She must have meant to say that our state government is a jobs machine. In this year’s budget, in spite of Governor Perdue and legislators down at the General Assembly talking about draconian cuts to services because revenues were down, government added [...]
- Aug02
Gov’t Stimulus Boosts Gov’t Power at Everyone Else’s Expense
Today’s Greensboro News & Record included my letter to the editor discussing government stimulus schemes: A recent editorial discussing the federal government’s stimulus funds declared, “There shouldn’t be any argument that benefits have accrued” (“Those stimulus funds provide modest relief,” July 28). True, the specific recipients of the funds have benefited. Many government workers and [...]
- Jul28
State Government workers’ union fighting privitization of IT jobs
Governor Perdue is pursuing the idea of asking private companies to run some of the information technology infrastructure to save money. But the State Employees Association of North Carolina (an affiliate of Service Employees Union International) is fighting the idea. This is from a recent post of the association’s web site: SEANC is perplexed that [...]
- Jul21
Want to Prolong the Recession?
Simply continue to pay people not to work. So the federal government is going to spend money it doesn’t have to give to people for doing nothing. How exactly does that encourage economic recovery? “This bill is about jobs because unemployment insurance goes to people who will spend it immediately,” said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. “That [...]
- 1Jul16
A Closer Look at Today’s Job Numbers
The NC Employment Security Commission released today updated job numbers reflecting labor data for June. The headlines tout the good news about the unemployment rate dropping from 10.4 in May to 10.0 in June. But a closer look at the data, however, proves the news is not quite so encouraging. The primary reason the unemployment [...]
- Jul16
Tough Sell
The White House trotted out Labor Sectretary Hilda Solis to Charlotte yesterday to try to fool more people into believing their “the stimulus has saved or created a bunch of jobs – no really, we’re serious!” propaganda. This line has got to be a pretty tough sell, especially here in the Tar Heel State. I [...]
- Jul15
White House’s Ministry of Propaganda Unveils More Misinformation
By now, you likely have heard about the White House’s latest foray into comedic propaganda – their laughable claim that the federal stimulus has “saved or created” between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs. I noted previously how these outrageous jobs claims are not based on any real-world developments, but rather on crude mathematical models [...]
- Jul07
Sweepstakes parlors banned by the legislature
The state House concurred with a Senate bill to ban Internet sweepstakes parlors by a vote of 86-27. The ban takes effect in December. Members of the House Black Caucus argued against the ban. They want to regulate and tax the games. Democratic Representative Marvin Lucas said it was an attempt to legislate morality. He [...]
- Jun25
Welfare for Movie Stars
Today’s Southern Pilot features a Scott Mooneyham article about the proposed expansion of North Carolina’s tax credit to movie and TV production studios. Poor Brad Pitt. And what about that sad -fellow Steven Spielberg? Times are tough everywhere. They need more money. And thanks to the North Carolina General Assembly, it looks as if the [...]
- Jun22
Hold the Pork
Politicians love to hold ribbon-cutting ceremonies in front of projects financed by government. Congressmen and women smilingly brag about how they are helping their home state “create jobs” by bringing home the bacon, and state lawmakers are overjoyed that “free” federal government money is being showered upon their state. The money awarded to the contractors [...]
- Jun15
Should Gov’t Make-Work Jobs Count in Employment Numbers?
Many observers and commentators of the current economic recession say “unemployment may be high now, but its nothing compared to the Great Depression.” But is that really a fair comparison? Independent Institute economist William Shugart suggests its not. The answer: The United States in the 1930s recognized that government-funded make-work jobs were not the same [...]
- May21
Good for Amex
It warmed my heart a bit to read in the N&O this morning that Amex was deciding to build a data center in Greensboro. Not only because our state could use some jobs, but because they decided to not seek any state or local incentives to do so. American Express, which has determined that Greensboro [...]
- May21
Join the Healthcare Lawsuit, Become “Jobs Governor”
Yesterday, Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton spoke at the National Federation of Independence Business (NFIB) luncheon in Raleigh. At the event it was noted that NFIB, which serves the purpose of promoting and protecting “the rights of small business owners to own, operate and grow their business,” had joined the lawsuit against the [...]
- Apr29
North Carolina’s Unfriendly Business Climate
With North Carolina struggling with an 11.1% unemployment rate – 9th highest in the nation – the news that North Carolina was rated as having among the poorest tax climates for small businesses should come as no surprise (except maybe to our “Jobs Governor”). North Carolina has one of the 15 worst tax environments for [...]
- Apr09
More Poverty Misfires from “Experts”
Today’s N&O features an article that focuses on North Carolina’s poverty problem. The article was written by the director of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity and the executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Preceding the rundown of poverty-related statistics is this phrase: Our charge is not only to rebuild an economy… This [...]
- Apr08
Unabated Unemployment
The national unemployment rate is hovering at 10 percent, while in North Carolina, according to the latest report by the state’s Employment Security Commission (NCESC), statewide unemployment reached 11.8 percent in February. These numbers highlight a troubling trend – a consistently high and increasing rate of unemployment. Since the economic downturn, North Carolina has experienced [...]
- Apr07
Poverty Reduction Committee’s Recommendations Miss the Mark
In yesterday’s Poverty Reduction Committee meeting, the sub-committees presented their policy recommendations for reducing poverty in North Carolina. The sub-committees were smaller groups assembled from the larger committee members and tasked with focusing in on more specific aspects of poverty, which included: persistent poverty, tax issues, jobs, and state programs. Unsurprisingly, the recommendations centered on [...]
- 1Apr02
More Stimulus Nonsense
The President is slated to visit Charlotte today to tour a facility that manufactures “green” battery parts and defend his wealth-destroying “stimulus” bill. Regarding the stimulus, Liz Oxhorn, a White House spokeswoman, defended the jobs tally. “Experts ranging from private forecaster Moody’s Economy.com to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agree it’s already responsible for about [...]