Economist: ‘True’ Federal Debt Masked by Draining U.S. Treasury

Janet Yellen

The federal debt continues to climb to unprecedented levels, but the “actual, true” debt is higher if the Treasury weren’t being drained, a national economist says.

Citing Bureau of the Fiscal Service data, E. J. Antoni, Ph.D., an economist at the Heritage Foundation, argues that as the federal debt increases, the “true daily deficit” is being masked by the amount of cash being drained from the U.S. Treasury by Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen.

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Commentary: Vaccine Mandates Likely Exacerbated Healthcare Worker Shortage, New Research Shows

tired medical staff

In his book Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt makes a famous distinction between good and bad economists:

The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

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Companies Scale Back Pride Month After Last Year’s Public Response Cost Them Millions

Starbucks

June 1 will mark the start of “Pride” month, in which advocates of LGBTQIA+ causes celebrate that movement. In recent years, June has seen major corporate chains feature an array of “Pride”-themed merchandise and decorations, though some offerings have prompted considerable backlash from a non-receptive — even hostile public — in recent years.

2023 saw major retailers such as Target become the subject of boycotts over more controversial products marketed for children. Other companies, such as Anheuser-Busch came under scrutiny over marketing campaigns that failed to resonate with their traditional clientele.

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New Report Details Just How Much Regulations Under Biden Have Cost Average Americans

Joe Biden

The Biden administration has set in motion a wave of new regulations that have already cost the U.S. more than $1 trillion, which equates to thousands of dollars per family, according to a new report from the Job Creators Network.

There have been $1.6 trillion in costs imposed from a total of 923 new federal regulations that have been finalized under President Joe Biden, with $1.2 trillion of those being put in place in just the past few months, according to the JCN. In just the first two years of the Biden administration, new regulations are estimated to have led to an average of almost $10,000 in added future and present costs to American households, which could jump to $60,000 if the trend continues across a two-term presidency.

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China’s Electric Vehicle Giant Claims to Have New Hybrid That Runs American Automakers Off the Road

BYD Car

China’s largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, BYD, announced Tuesday that two of its new hybrid models have ranges that far exceed those of American competitors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

BYD’s chairman Wang Chuanfu claimed at an event in Xian, China, that the company was launching two new hybrid models that could go 2,100 kilometers, or 1,306 miles, on a single tank of gas and a full charge, according to the WSJ. The range is almost double the range of global hybrid competitors, which is around 1,100 km, or 683 miles, at the upper limit, and far exceeds the 700-mile range achieved by America’s longest-driving hybrid in 2023, the Lexus ES 300h.

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Home Prices Under Biden Hit Yet Another All-Time High

Home prices surged in March to another all-time high for the sixth month out of the last twelve, S&P Global announced Tuesday.

The Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which measures home prices across the entire country, rose 6.5 percent year-over-year in March, matching the annual gain in February, according to S&P Global. The increase in the price of homes is higher than the general pace of inflation, which increased 3.4 percent year-over-year in April.

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Biden Environmental Agenda Under Fire for Increasing Costs for Americans

James Comer and Joe Biden

The Biden administration’s energy policies are increasingly costly for Americans, a newly released report says.

U.S. House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released the report, which argues Biden’s energy policies have increased costs for Americans and hurt the economy.

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KC Fed Analysis: Migrants Cooled Overheated Labor Market, Slowed Wage Growth

Farm Workers

The increase of migrant workers during the last two years cooled an overheated labor market and slowed wage growth across industries and states, according to an analysis of government statistics.

“The influx of immigrant workers appears to have helped alleviate the severe staffing shortages in certain industries that were pervasive during the pandemic’s volatile period,” Elior Cohen, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, wrote in the organization’s Economic Bulletin. It serves Colorado, Kansas, western Missouri, Nebraska, northern New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

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