Mr. Hansen’s testimony described three possible scenarios for the future of carbon dioxide emissions. He called Scenario A “business as usual,” as it maintained the accelerating emissions growth typical of the 1970s and ’80s. This scenario predicted the earth would warm 1 degree Celsius by 2018. Scenario B set emissions lower, rising at the same […]
States have the authority to make online retailers collect sales taxes, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, opening a new chapter in economic history where e-commerce is treated as a mature player in a marketplace that is no longer defined by trips to the corner store or the shopping mall. By a 5-to-4 vote, the court […]
The surge of retiring baby boomers is reshaping the U.S. into a country with fewer workers to support the elderly—a shift that will add to strains on retirement programs such as Social Security and sharpen the national debate on the role of immigration in the workforce. For most of the past few decades, the ratio […]
Economic confidence among lower-income Americans has taken a recent leap, the latest evidence that benefits of the economic expansion are reaching a broader swath of workers. Sentiment among lower-income consumers still trails that of their higher-earning counterparts. But the gap has narrowed in recent months. In the University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index, confidence among households […]
The speculative fever for electric-car metals is pushing to nearly four-year highs prices for nickel—a key ingredient in stainless steel. Nickel is the top industrial metal and among the best-performing assets of 2018, with futures contracts on the London Metal Exchange up 21%, as battery manufacturers, mostly in China, and investors across the world hoard […]
Global spending on renewable energy is outpacing investment in electricity from coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, driven by falling costs of producing wind and solar power. More than half of the power-generating capacity added around the world in recent years has been in renewable sources such as wind and solar, according to the […]
In Michigan the roads are so bad they’re a joke on social media. “BREAKING NEWS: lost city of atlantis found in detroit pothole,” local YouTube star Demetrius Harmon quipped on Twitter in February, garnering thousands of likes. “I don’t always dodge potholes,” another Michigan meme says, “but when I do, I hit four more.” So […]
The Social Security program’s costs will exceed its income this year for the first time since 1982, forcing the program to dip into its nearly $3 trillion trust fund to cover benefits. This is three years sooner than expected a year ago, partly due to lower economic growth projections, according to the latest annual report […]
New tax rules that cap deductions of state and local taxes are having a disproportionate effect on taxpayers who live in states with high income taxes and property taxes. While it’s too early to quantify the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which became effective on Jan. 1, some real-estate professionals say they […]
The emergence of the gig economy in the past decade has scarcely changed the U.S. labor market, according to newly released government data. Anyone who has ridden in an Uber, noticed a contractor working alongside them or taken a temp job to make ends meet might say the nature of work is shifting. But new […]
The good news for home builders and house hunters is that lumber prices have sold off since hitting an all-time high in mid May. The bad news: wood prices are still up 67% over the past year, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of each new house. The historic run-up in lumber prices–attributable to […]
The U.S. had more job openings this spring than unemployed Americans. For the first time since such record-keeping began in 2000, the number of available positions exceeded the number of job seekers, the Labor Department said Tuesday, a shift that is rippling across the economy and affecting the behavior of employers and workers. U.S. job […]
The U.S. labor market was firing on all cylinders in May: the unemployment rate fell to an 18-year low, employers added jobs at a faster pace and wages modestly improved. The unemployment rate ticked down to a seasonally adjusted 3.8%, matching April 2000 as the lowest reading since 1969, the Labor Department said Friday. Nonfarm […]
The goods economy has been transformed by trade and technological innovation over several decades, giving consumers access to inexpensive products made in foreign countries or automated factories. The services economy has been more sheltered from international competition and technological change. You can’t hire cheap Chinese labor to serve you pizza or a robot to teach […]
The Trump administration is aiming new regulations at states looking to soften the loss of deductions under the new federal tax law. The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department said new rules would be coming soon, in what appears to be a warning to states that have sought workarounds for residents who face a bigger […]