Economy
The ProJo editorializes against putting a Yacht yard on the spot where a container port would go: The explanation for the state’s alacrity in welcoming a mega-yacht center: Governor Carcieri, who entered public life by opposing a container port, and some of his followers in the summer yacht-club crowd (some of whom only live in…
Another week, another pro-Port development editorial from the ProJo: Port jobs pay exceptionally well and tend to be outsourcing-proof, since businesses must move goods to population centers, wherever they are produced. Further, the ports spin off other business, for which there is plenty of room at a place like Quonset Point, in manufacturing and services.…
I don’t think Daniel Hunter’s theory of economics is going to play well with taxpayers. (Legislators, on the other hand, might be a different story.) From Brian C. Jones in this week’s Providence Phoenix… Beware of questions always asked about the arts in troubled budget times, [Daniel R. Hunter, borrowed from the Massachusetts Advocates for…
Kiersten Marek offers what might be thought of as the social worker’s response to Friday’s cris de coeur, and I’m not sure she’s understood my complaints or my worries. Most starkly, as I explained in the comments to my post, I do not blame Rhode Island’s politico-economic environment — much less the people who take…
Now that the Senate has slowed down the “amnesty” process a bit (phew!), perhaps they will be able to thoughtfully examine the economic impact of allowing massive numbers of low-skilled immigrant workers into this country (whether they’re here illegally or not). This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t allow such workers in, only that we…
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell writes: While most of the media were busy covering the latest developments on the Iraq funding bill or the bipartisan immigration proposal, congressional Democrats on Thursday quietly passed a budget creating the framework for the largest tax increases in American history… Everyone takes a hit. Forty-five million working families with two…
I agree with the Providence Journal that it is “perverse” for the CEO of a health insurance company to make one-and-a-half times the entire payroll of a 2,000-employee hospital. Considering how often Republicans and conservatives are saddled with the ideological blame for these supposed excesses of the free market, that admission may surprise some readers.…
Marc recently raised the question of conservative imperatives bearing on local versus big-brand shopping habits. It’s an interesting topic, because it lies at the intersection of various philosophical principles and general preferences. Chief among the principles is the acknowledgment that we must work within, rather than deny, the incomprehensible forces that govern human society. In…
This snippet from the ProJo’s Robert Whitcomb got me thinking: This past Sunday’s Boston Herald detailed, in a story by Phil Restuccia, a growing movement of consumers and local businesspeople called Local First. This national group has organized 17,000 businesses around the country into 50 groups promoting their services directly to local shoppers, appealing to…
I had heard last week that the recently-raided M. Bianco plant in New Bedford had opened it’s doors to applicants and that they were mobbed. As Mark Krikorian reminds, this is just another example that undercuts the claim that illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won’t do. After the Swift meatpacking raids in Greeley. Colo.,…
