Don’t Listen to De-growthers — Economic Growth Is Healthy!
With the pandemic and the rise of climate alarmism, attacks on economic growth have multiplied. An increasingly larger set of pundits, academics, and politicians now embrace some variants of de-growth. They tie economic growth to a variety of “bad” outcomes. One of those “bads” is the idea that economic growth is not yielding many fruits […]
What performance-enhancing stimulants mean for economic growth
Towards the end of last year America began running short of medicines used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd), including Adderall (an amphetamine) and Ritalin (a central-nervous-system stimulant). Nine in ten pharmacies reported shortages of the medication, which tens of millions of Americans use to help improve focus and concentration. Around the same time, something […]
Economic Growth Makes Graceland Less Impressive
If you embrace the conventional wisdom about income trends over the last few decades, you know that almost all the gains from economic growth have gone to those at the very top of the income distribution. The super-rich got super-richer, and they left the rest of us behind to make do with our stagnating incomes. […]
The meaty mystery at the heart of China’s economic growth
Over the past few decades, the small, industrial city of Zibo has been best-known for its petrochemical output. In recent months, however, it has become the centre of a national barbecue craze and social-media phenomenon unlike anything China has seen before. Tourists have flooded the city in the central province of Shandong in the hope […]
Job growth totals 253,000 in April
Job growth fared better than expected in April despite bank turmoil and a decelerating economy, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased 253,000 for the month, beating Wall Street estimates for growth of 180,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate was 3.4% against an estimate for 3.6% and tied for […]
Stagflation Lite: 1st Quarter US GDP Growth Weakens to 1.1 Percent Amid a Renewed Inflationary Surge
Real US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annualized rate of 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023, coming in within the lower half of estimates that ranged from 0.4 to 3.5 percent on Bloomberg. This is a decline from the 2.6 percent that the US economy grew in the 4th quarter of […]
US jobs growth slowed in March as Fed put brakes on economy
US jobs growth slowed in March but not enough to deter the Federal Reserve from considering another interest rate increase as the central bank battles high inflation. The world’s largest economy added 236,000 positions last month, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on Friday. This was a step down from […]
Jeremy Hunt targets business in ‘Budget for growth’
This article is an on-site version of our Disrupted Times newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox three times a week Today’s top stories BlackRock chief Larry Fink raised the spectre of a “slow rolling crisis” after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Here’s our SVB coverage in full. […]
How China’s shifting growth picture could hit global markets
A shopping mall in Qingzhou, Shandong province, broadcasts the opening ceremony of China’s National People’s Congress on Sunday, March 5, 2023. Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images China’s economy will be forced to recalibrate because of a “fractured” global order, and the new drivers of growth will “disappoint” global markets, according to David […]
Taxes, Tax Cuts, and Economic Growth
As economists will tell you, the world runs on incentives. Human beings act rationally by making choices that have the greatest perceived value given all available outcomes. The history of tax law in America exemplifies this point. In the book Taxes Have Consequences: An Income Tax History of the United States, the well-known economist Arthur […]