At the start of every year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) publishes “The Budget and Economic Outlook,” a tome full of statistics, tables and charts.. . . What we have is an inherently unstable situation, though we do not know — and probably cannot know — how or when the possible dangers will materialize. The […]
Until recently, most white-collar, service-sector and professional jobs were shielded from automation by humans’ cognitive monopoly. Computers couldn’t think, so jobs that required any type of thinking—nuclear physics professor, florist and everything in between—required a human. But a form of artificial intelligence called “machine learning” has given computers skills like reading, writing, speaking and recognizing […]
Many political reporters have spent the last six weeks cataloging alleged harms to the economy from the partial government shutdown ended last week. Meanwhile outside of government, America’s small companies were ramping up their historic effort to employ new workers. That’s according to the latest National Federation of Independent Business employment survey, due out later […]
Oregon is poised to become the first state to enact statewide rent control. The Democrat-controlled state Senate is considering a bill to cap rent increases at 7 points above the annual increase in the consumer price index. Currently, that works out to about 10% a year. The bill also includes tenant protections, such as prohibiting […]
When I was CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, I chose Round Rock, Texas, over San Jose, Calif., for Cypress’s second wafer-fabrication plant, and I chose to locate our third plant in Bloomington, Minn. Other CEOs made similar decisions. Silicon Valley barely has any silicon left; there are now zero state-of-the-art wafer-fabrication plants here. We had to […]
PG&E rates are already among the highest in the country and have increased by 40% over the last decade compared to 15% nationwide. But the reality is that rates would be far higher if PG&E had spent more on insulating equipment, clearing overgrown vegetation and taking other precautionary measures to reduce wildfire hazards. The PUC […]
Banks and smaller companies that were among the market’s laggards last quarter have helped stocks to their best January in 30 years, a sign investors are favoring sectors tied to the U.S. economy. Despite a modest performance from U.S. indexes Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both closed the month with […]
The U.S. economy’s brief flirtation with 3% growth is over for now, economists say, cut short by a dimming global outlook, market tremors and sluggish business investment. Gross domestic product, or the total value of goods and services produced in the U.S., grew at a 2.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter, economists estimate in […]
Railroad executives played down concerns about a cooling U.S. economy, which they said remains on solid footing as growing shipments of grain, oil and e-commerce packages offset broader worries over trade policy and volatile stock markets. The chief executives of CSX Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. said conversations with their shippers, which represent a broad […]
Compensation for American workers grew more slowly in the fourth quarter than the third. The employment-cost index, a measure of wages and benefits for civilian workers, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% from October through December, the Labor Department said Thursday. The gain was slightly short of expectations of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal […]
Fewer than 15 percent of California workers were members of a union in 2018, the lowest union membership rate in at least 35 years, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 14.7 percent of the state’s workers belong to a union in 2018, down from 15.5 percent in 2017. The […]
Consumer confidence dropped in January for a third consecutive month, likely hit by political discord in Washington, in addition to market and economic uncertainty weighing on U.S. households. The Conference Board on Tuesday said its index of U.S. consumer confidence fell to 120.2 in January from 126.6. It is now down 17.7 points from October, […]
The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index came in at 56.6 for January, easily surpassing economist expectations for 54 score. This measure of economic activity, which is based on a monthly survey of purchasing managers at roughly 300 manufacturing firms nationwide, had weakened considerably to 54.1 in December and was expected to continue weakening. The […]
Tested in January by a 35-day government shutdown, market volatility and uncertainty about global growth, the U.S. labor market passed with high marks, notching its 100th straight month of increased employment and sustaining robust wage growth. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 304,000 in January, the Labor Department said Friday. The gain was well above […]
Under Peskin’s proposal, owners of commercial properties in Neighborhood Commercial Districts — areas where stores and services are clustered — that are vacant for more than six months would face a fine of at least $250 per day. And while storefronts are the visible face of the long-term vacancy problem, Peskin wants to target residential […]