The stock market reacted favorably this morning when it was announced that the number of people on payrolls fell by 36,000 in February, better than the 50,000 loss expected by economists. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, also slightly better than expected. Another indicator that may have received less attention is the 15-Week unemployment rate—the percent of the labor force that has been unemployed for 15 weeks or longer and is still looking for employment. In December, 2007 this statistic stood at only 1.6%. In February, 2010, it was …
The Tax Foundation reported last week: “Canada, the Czech Republic, Korea, and Sweden all cut their corporate tax rates in 2009, distancing the United States even further from the pack with its combined federal and state rate of 39.1 percent—second only to Japan for the highest corporate tax rate among nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). A Tax Foundation analysis of new OECD data finds that 2009 marks the 12th consecutive year in which the U.S. corporate tax rate is higher than the average rate among …
In Britain, London’s buried under eight inches of snow, the trains don’t work, the economy’s collapsing, and a Labour government’s put the nation deeper in debt that it has been in thirty years. The Adam Smith Institute, preferring to laugh instead of cry, jokes that it looks like the 1970s all over again. And the strikes are back too. In late January, workers walked off the job at the Lindsey oil refinery. Sympathy strikes – technically illegal – followed at power stations and refineries around Britain. The cause of the …
Guess who lampooned Soviet economics this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost [the Soviet Union] dearly. Newt Gingrich? Rush Limbaugh? Try Vladimir Putin. Apparently, the power-hungry, former KGB Putin understands the value of globally competitive corporations better than the U.S. Congress. This should come as no surprise. As this chart shows, the lessons of the rise of the American economy in …
Tax reform, not reckless government spending, is the way to revive the ailing U.S. economy. American entrepreneurs and businesses carry heavy taxes on their backs as they compete in the global marketplace, from India to China and Canada to Russia. Other nations followed the U.S. example in 1986 by cutting tax rates on businesses so they could take risks and create jobs. But America’s top corporate tax rate, 40 percent, is now the highest among all but one of our 30 largest trading partners – a sluggish Japan. It’s not …
