According to Alan Reynolds, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, the federal stimulus actually added about 2 percentage points to the unemployment rate. The jobs the stimulus was claimed to have created or saved can be mostly attributed to extending unemployment benefits and bolstering government programs such as Social Security and Medicaid. Additionally the 4th [...]
- Feb19
Stimulus Math
Upon celebrating the one-year anniversary of the federal wealth destruction “stimulus” act, the President and VP defended the act with claims of jobs created or saved. Vice President Biden today delivered a report to the president about the progress of the stimulus. The report states that $453 billion, about 57 percent of the money has [...]
- Feb12
Self-Contradiction from NC’s Radical Left-Wingers
The folks over at the NC Justice Center offered up a double-whammy this week of self-contradiction. First up, Adam Searing penned this op-ed in the N&O urging Congress to pass some version of health care “reform” (public opinion be damned, of course). He points out that, under the current, mostly-government run system, “Health insurance has [...]
- Feb10
More Keynesian Debunking
Economist William Anderson dispels a couple of Keynesian fallacies in this excellent piece. There are many unfortunate legacies of Keynesian “economics,” too many to list in this brief column. However, I concentrate on two of them: the notions that recessions change economic laws and that government borrowing equates to business borrowing. Both views are championed [...]
- Feb08
$25 Million Pier Creates “Jobs”
We first brought you news of the hiring of a “Part-Time Pier Construction Observer” over the summer. This temporary employee has an 11-month contract (July 23, 2009 – June 23, 2010), working 20 hours per week at an hourly rate of $44.03 (roughly $38,000 total). Main duties of this State-funded position include giving guided tours for elected [...]
- Feb04
More Corporate Welfare Failure
GMAC just announced it will be closing two offices in Charlotte, eliminating 115 jobs less than a year after their opening. Of course, the majority government-owned GMAC received government subsidies in exchange for their promise to “create” 200 jobs in Charlotte (ah yes, the joys of our “free market”). Gov. Perdue naturally attempted to gain positive exposure [...]
- Feb03
“Jobs Governor”? Only 12% Think So.
In our poll this month, we asked voters if Gov. Bev Perdue nicknaming herself as the “Jobs Governor” was an appropriate title for the Governor given her first year in office. Only 12% of voters said yes. 68 percent said no. As for her favorability rating this month it comes in at a -5 (43% [...]
- 1Jan26
Speaking of Incentives…
Following up on Chad’s post, check out this new article at nccivitas.org listing North Carolina’s 10 largest corporate welfare deals. When you begin to add up the promised tax breaks and handouts, the numbers become a bit staggering. The Dell deal tops the list with a total state deal of $260 million (how’d that work [...]
- Jan20
An Update From NCICL
This is a recent update on the ongoing incentives debacles across our great state from the NC Institute of Constitutional Law. $100,000 in additional incentives has been approved for Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) by commissioners in Durham County on January 11th. The company has also been granted a $150,000grant from the state’s One North Carolina Fund and [...]
- Jan14
The (Lost) Jobs Governor
Governor Perdue laid out initiatives for jobs and education in a recent speech to the Charlotte Chamber. Allegedly with a straight face, Perdue said the following: “Make no mistake,” she told a Charlotte Chamber audience. “Our number one priority in North Carolina has to be jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs. … I am, and [...]
- 8Jan13
More Economic Ignorance From NC’s Faithful Government Lapdog
One of North Carolina’s leading authoritarians and government mouthpieces once again further marginalizes himself with his dogmatic faith in Keynesian economics. He takes umbrage with a recent blog post of mine that highlights the federal “stimulus” plan’s inability to create jobs. In his article, he cites a few studies, including one by the Congressional Budget [...]
- Dec22
Poll Odds and Ends
The full poll results for December will be released on the website tomorrow, but if you’ve missed any of the results so far, the press releases are up on our website here. A couple of tidbits before the full poll comes out tomorrow: Generic legislative ballot is back to a 3 point Democratic advantage after [...]
- 2Nov16
Crickets
That’s the only sound you will hear coming out of the left-wingers today as another NC based business decides to expand its operations in our neighbor to the south. According to the AP: A research firm that develops advanced textiles for the automotive, aeronautics and defense industries says it will open a new facility in [...]
- Oct27
Please Spin This Horrid Economy
For the longest of times the media desperately wanted to call the economy a “Recesssion” and couldn’t because the economy had not ground to a halt. But recessions are very psychologically driven and if you say something long enough, then uncertainty builds and, well, you find yourself in a terrible situation. The beauty of this [...]
- Oct11
“Green” Lessons to Be Learned
Today’s Washington Post profiles Governor Granholm (D) the first female governor of Michigan (elected in 2002) and her priority of bringing “green” jobs to her state. In 2006, Granholm used traditional techniques, you know, $37 million in tax breaks and Super Bowl tickets for executives, to bring a solar panel manufacturer into a town that [...]
- Jul29
N.C. Taxpayers Create Jobs in V.A.
Please don’t get the wrong idea, I am not against interstate commerce, however, when a bill is passed by our General Assembly and signed by our Governor to create jobs in North Carolina, one cannot help but be a bit surprised to find out that almost as many employees currently on-site in Nags Head, N.C. [...]
- Jul28
Offshore Energy Will Create Jobs in N.C.
According to two recent studies, both forms of offshore energy have the potential to create or sustain thousands of jobs in North Carolina as well as produce an economic benefit into the billions. So the question now becomes, which type of offshore energy will our legislators pursue? On one hand, we have “green” wind while [...]