Congresswomen Capito argued in the Gazette on "Labor Day" (of all days...) to renew Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. In the op-ed, Capito resorted to presenting voters with a "false choice" about the Bush tax cuts and by presenting the facts in a way that would make Orwell blush. Here's Capito: "Contrary to popular belief, the…
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There is bright news coming from the West Virginia State Budget Office August cash flow report. General Revenues collected in August are ahead of schedule, most likely due to increased sales in back-to-school purchases and improvements in business activity due to stimulus spending. General Revenue collections were up $31 million dollars at the end of…
I've talked before about how the middle class is falling behind, due to rising income inequality. One way to measure inequality is the Gini Index. The Gini index is used to measure the distribution of income in a region. The higher the score on the Gini index, the greater the income inequality. A score of 1…
Ted pointed out that West Virginia's employment level is at its lowest point in 14 years. A closer look shows that West Virginia's employment situation has been pretty bad for decades. One measure of how well a state or region provides employment is the employment-to-population ratio or employment rate. This ratio is the number of…
The Beckley Register decided to have some fun with my commentary this morning. Instead of reading it as a statement about moving away from coal (i.e. "transition"), they injected their own political opinion (perhaps for publication purposes) by creating an artificial headline that says "State should seize opportunity of clean coal energy." For the record, and…
Since the national recession started in December 2007, West Virginia has lost 18,200 jobs or 2.4 percent of its job base. West Virginia's job deficit - or the total number of jobs needed to keep pace with the working age population growth since the recession started - is about 25,600. West Virginia's seasonally adjusted unemployment…
I've talked before about how tax incentives aren't particularly effective in transforming the state's economy. They might create a modest number of jobs in the short run, but tax incentives deplete resources available for public investments that can improve a region's infrastructure and increase the skills of it workforce. Basic public investments can better improve a region's…
The Department of Labor is showing that monthly jobless claims (a.k.a. Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims) rose to 500,000, a nine-month U.S. high. This is not a good sign for the economic recovery. Most economists maintain that new monthly claims need to be below 400,000 for us to see a substantial uptick in hiring. So, what does…
According to a recent study by the Center for American Progress , new federal funds from the recent health care legislation should create nearly 5,000 new jobs in West Virginia, thanks to significant investment in community health centers. The Affordable Care Act will provide $11 billion nationwide to build new community health centers and improve existing ones. Most…
West Virginians have had no shortage of economic challenges over the past few years. Jobs have grown scarce, health care costs have risen, and financial insecurity has grown. One economic challenge, however, stretches back for decades, slow income growth for middle class families. For the first half of the 20th century, the middle class grew…