Currently viewing the category: "Economy"

CT’s U.S. House Delegates: No Apologies for Spending, Regulation

By On May 2, 2013 · 11 Comments

The message was clear Thursday as Connecticut’s five representatives in the U.S. House gathered in Hartford to talk about economic matters.

We need to invest.  We need to spend.

 

Whether it’s high-speed rail, advanced airline navigation systems, basic research, Head Start programs for kids, maintaining military bases, Obamacare or the Connecticut River dikes, the [...]

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CEO Pay for 2012 in the U.S. and Connecticut: Part of a Broken System

By On April 15, 2013 · 23 Comments

The AFL-CIO launched its annual database of CEO pay Monday, showing the average 2012 pay of CEOs at companies on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was $12.3?million, or 354 times more than the average American worker earned.
The average of those S&P 500 CEOs — the 327 companies that have filed for 2012 [...]

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U.S. Economy Adds 236,000 Jobs In February, Unemployment Falls To 7.7 Percent; Questions About Connecticut

By On March 8, 2013 · 16 Comments

The U.S. labor markets turned in one of the best monthly performances of the last 12 months in February, adding 236,000 jobs and paring the unemployment rate to 7.7 percent in a report Friday that heightens concerns about the divide between a sluggish state recovery and rising momentum across the nation.

The national gains, [...]

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Sequester Cuts: When and Where They’re Happening

By On February 28, 2013 · 3 Comments

The 2-year federal government meltdown is finally at Code Red and the sequester is here.

We have endless stories about the gridlock, the economic effects and the blame game.

But here, in one place, I plan to collect basic information in a usable form without bias: When and where the sequester cuts are happening.

The [...]

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Trillion-Dollar Coin: The Joke That’s No Joke

By On January 10, 2013 · 5 Comments

Ever since Obama said he wouldn’t negotiate over the debt ceiling, talk of the trillion-dollar coin has heated up.  On Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to dismiss the ploy as an option, furthering the economic joke that isn’t a joke.

What is the trillion-dollar coin? It’s a technicality that could save Obama [...]

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43,000 Jobless Residents Should Keep Filing For Checks That Could End This Week

By On December 27, 2012 · 21 Comments

Among the people most immediately affected by the fiscal cliff cliffhanger are those who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks, and stand to lose unemployment benefits after this week — maybe.

They should keep applying online for their checks, the state Department of Labor said, this week and into the new [...]

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CT Metro Areas: Lagging the Nation and the World in Growth

By On November 30, 2012 · Leave a Comment

How’s Connecticut faring in the world? For income, just fine, thank you.

Growth is a different story. The Brookings Institution issued a report Friday ranking the world’s largest 300 metro areas in growth in 2012, based on output per-person and jobs. Even among lagging U.S. metros, Bridgeport-Stamford and Hartford ranked low, Nos. 255 and [...]

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Recycling Connecticut Jobs, Thousands of Them

By On November 29, 2012 · 4 Comments

Way back in the primordial era when recycling was a new thing, critics said it would cost thousands of jobs of people who make glass, plastic and aluminum.
With recycling as a way of life and an industry, a new report from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center says it’s responsible for 4,790 jobs and [...]

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Fast Food Walkout In New York Adds to Spate of Low-Wage Actions

By On November 29, 2012 · 32 Comments

Workers at fast-food outlets in New York walked off the job Thursday, another action by low-wage workers of the sort we should expect to see happening more.

Organizers hope to see the protest lead to unionization and wages of $15 an hour, but as Steven Greenhouse explains in the New York Times, it’s [...]

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State Budget Crisis, 2013-16: Nowhere To Hide

By On November 27, 2012 · 38 Comments

Ben Barnes, the state budget czar, brought a pile of ugly numbers to a packed room full of lawmakers Tuesday with a broad message and a statement — “not a pledge” — that Malloy won’t seek more tax hikes.

The state not only faces budget shortfalls of $363 million this year and $1.1 billion in [...]

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