Economy News
The Daily Signal reports on economy news with analysis and commentary on growth, recession risks, employment, and financial trends.
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opinion
Tariffs on Canadian Softwood Lumber Hitting US Homebuyers Hard
Lumber prices have gone through the roof over the past year—up 370%. The lumber needed to build a new home now costs nearly $36,000 more than just 12 months ago. The reasons include lower production levels at U.S. sawmills when the pandemic was raging, high demand for new homes as millennials enter the peak homebuying… -
opinion
Time to Act on a Trade Deal With Taiwan
In a recent joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Finance subcommittee on international trade, customs, and global competitiveness, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, ranking member on the trade subcommittee, made a case for strategic trade reengagement in the Indo-Pacific region. The two senators pointed out,… -
opinion
Bernie Sanders’ Attack on US Defense Spending Gets the Facts Wrong
The Senate Committee on the Budget held a hearing on “Waste, Fraud, Cost Overruns, and Auditing at the Pentagon” on May 12. By the title you might think the conclusion of the hearing was preordained: The Department of Defense is the greatest example of fraud and mismanagement in the federal government. You would have been… -
opinion
Liberals Should Learn From Weak Jobs Report That Incentives Matter
“Experts” predicted 1 million jobs would be created in April. The actual number fell far short, at 266,000. Republicans warned that overly generous COVID-19 relief benefits create a disincentive to work. The day before this disappointing jobs report, Bloomberg wrote: In earnings calls and business surveys, executives often blame stimulus checks and generous unemployment benefits… -
opinion
Even in a Pandemic, Welfare for the Rich Thrives
Congress passed the $2.2 trillion HEROES Act. House Democrats said it gives money to “governments who desperately need funds.” But it also gives lots of money to people who don’t need funds. Maryland, which even The Washington Post admits is “flush with cash,” got enough extra money to pass a budget that “hands bonuses to… -
opinion
6 Charts Highlight Troubling Trends Driven by Growing Nondefense Spending
If you listen to the narrative being promoted by President Joe Biden and his allies on the left, it would be easy to think that the federal government spends more than enough on the military and little on nondefense social programs. Yet the reality is exactly the opposite. The federal government has become home to… -
opinion
Birth Dearth About Values, Not Economics
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that births in the U.S. reached another historic low in 2020. For the sixth consecutive year, the birthrate dropped—this time by 4%. The average annual drop in the five previous years was 2%. The rate at which American women are having babies is way below the rate… -
opinion
Fact Check: Was Biden Right About Federal Unemployment Benefits Having No Effect on Jobs Report?
The $1.9 trillion, partisan COVID-19 relief package was supposed to boost the economy, but it may have stifled it instead. With widespread reopenings, 46% of Americans having received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, and another round of “stimulus” checks boosting Americans’ bank accounts, expectations were high for job gains to exceed 1 million in April…. -
opinion
Abysmal Jobs Report Shows Folly of Biden’s Big-Spending Agenda
The latest national employment numbers were released on Friday. Expectations were high. A combination of vaccinations, relaxing of pandemic-related economic restrictions, and stimulus funding that passed in March were enough to have experts predicting 1 million new jobs in April. The reality was quite different—just 266,000 new jobs in April, the biggest underperformance in memory,… -
opinion
Biden’s Proposed Education Spending Spree Is Untenable, Unaffordable
The Biden administration’s recently released budget request would significantly expand the federal footprint on education through a greatly accelerated education spending spree. The administration requested nearly $103 billion for K-12 and higher education—a 41% funding increase—for the Department of Education. The president’s budget request includes significant funding increases for: School districts with students from low-income… -
opinion
Woke but Broke: How US Colleges Are Pricing Students, Themselves Out of Business
Whether their leaders realize or admit it or not, American colleges and universities are on the verge of a crisis. And it’s a crisis, by and large, of their own making. The National Association of Scholars last month published a report by Neetu Arnold, “Priced Out: What College Costs America,” which finds, among other things,… -
opinion
Amazon’s Rejection of Unions in Alabama a Big Loss for Big Labor
Big labor suffered a significant loss in its attempt to unionize employees at Amazon’s warehouse facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Of the workers eligible to vote, an embarrassingly small 16% voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. It was the most recent in a series of high-profile losses for labor, including failed attempts… -
opinion
Specter of Rising Inflation Threatens Future Economic Freedom
As the worst and most devastating initial economic impact of the global pandemic begins to fade, nations around the world face a number of challenges in rebuilding their economies. One of them is the specter of greater inflation. As a component of the monetary freedom score in the Index of Economic Freedom, higher inflation will… -
opinion
Lack of Economic Freedom in Central America Spurring Mass Migration
The lack of economic freedom in the countries of the Northern Triangle—Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador—has long been a consistent push factor of illegal immigration to the north. It did not suddenly cause the 2021 U.S. border crisis, and resolving it requires serious, lasting solutions. There are a great number of interwoven factors behind why… -
opinion
Biden’s Appropriations Budget Proposal Is Unreasonable, Irresponsible
After proposing a massive $2 trillion tax-and-spending binge, President Joe Biden released his budget request for fiscal year 2022 discretionary appropriations. This so-called skinny budget proposal would drive up wasteful spending, shortchange actual priorities such as national security, and increase the likelihood of the appropriations bills not being passed through regular order. The budget is… -
opinion
9 Things You Need to Know About Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Spending Plan
Fast on the heels of signing a bloated $1.9 trillion spending package, President Joe Biden has introduced yet another gigantic spending plan. While the administration’s messaging focuses on broadly popular themes such as “jobs” and “infrastructure,” the details of the plan show that it would be a destructive power grab for Washington. Here are just… -
opinion
Biden Administration Should Say No to New Trade Deals With China
In her first media interview since being confirmed United States trade representative, Katherine Tai said last week she is in no rush to lift tariffs associated with the Trump administration’s U.S.-China Phase One trade deal. She should reconsider. Tai’s stated reasoning for maintaining the tariffs is that they provide useful negotiating leverage. Which is kind… -
opinion
New Secretary-General Could Stop Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development From Veering Further Left
Longtime Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has recently been elected to a five-year term as secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental economic group based in Paris. Cormann will assume his duties on June 1, replacing three-term Secretary-General Angel Gurría of Mexico. New leadership might be exactly what this taxpayer-funded international… -
opinion
Biden’s Tax-and-Spend ‘Infrastructure’ Plan Would Slow Economy, Deepen Swamp
The Biden administration on Wednesday released details of the first part of its latest enormous spending plan. Although President Joe Biden is promoting the plan as a way to create jobs through infrastructure projects, its combination of tax hikes and central planning would leave the nation poorer and more dysfunctional. Amazingly, this $2 trillion-plus in… -
opinion
Liberals’ Employer Tax Scheme in Lieu of $15 Minimum Wage Is as Crazy as It Is Convoluted
Despite repeated setbacks—including opposition from some Democrats—to liberal lawmakers’ deeply flawed push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, proponents continue their desperate search for roundabout ways to force through that mandated nationwide minimum. The first blow came when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a $15 minimum wage could not be included under…