1) What’s the Fastest Growing Industry in America Today?
Government.
During the just-ended first half of 2023 federal, state, and local governments added 380,000 workers to their payrolls. As the chart below shows this was more hires than any industry in America. It was more than mining, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, and transportation — COMBINED.
Change in Payrolls Jan. – June 2023
Wait. With the federal government running a $2 trillion annual deficit, and with the Covid crisis long ago behind us, shouldn’t we be systematically downsizing?
The only industry that comes anywhere near the government in hiring so far in 2023 is health care/hospitals. And that industry is half funded with government dollars from government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Steve Moore and Vivek Ramaswamy penned a piece on this for the New York Post concluding that the economy is growing in all the wrong places:
2) Red States Still Clobbering Blue States in Job Creation
Here we go again. The red states continue to dominate in job creation.
Nine of the top 10 states are red states — as defined as holding all three of the chambers of political power (governor, House, and Senate) in dark red — or two of the three in light red.
You see a lot of blue at the bottom of the heap.
We can’t help mentioning that Vermont is 2nd to worst in jobs created and CNBC ranks it the top state in terms of livability. Florida, Tennessee, and Texas are bursting with jobs and they are ranked by CNBC as among the least livable states. So the fewer the jobs, the more livable the state – or something like that.
3) The Left’s Latest Wacko Global Warming Plan Revealed
Finally, the left is getting honest about the radicalism of their climate change agenda. If we all stop using electricity and maybe even perhaps go back to living in caves, the planet will be a better place.
For years the greens have propagandized that we could have anti-fossil fuels policies and green investments – and we could get richer all the while.
Now we are told we are going to have to have the lights and the air conditioning and the heaters and the factories and the iPhones and the Internet and the hospitals and schools shut down. But just occasionally – at first.
We are up against modern-day Luddites.
We will say it again: get a generator while those are still legal. The grid is no longer reliable.
4) Is Britain Backing Away From Climate Change Craziness?
A dramatic change in Britain’s energy policy may be coming. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is hinting that London may be backing off its ban on the sale of new gas and diesel cars beginning in 2030.
“We’re going to make progress towards net zero but we’re going to do that in a proportionate and pragmatic way that doesn’t unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives – that’s not what I’m interested in and prepared to do.” Needless to say, pragmatism is the opposite of climate hysteria.
More good news from the other side of the pond. U.K. voters handed the Labor Party a surprise defeat in the special London election to replace former PM Boris Johnson in Parliament because of fierce opposition to the Labor Party’s green car tax imposed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
5) Can Ireland’s Low Tax Rate Save the European Union Economy?
Who would have ever thought that tiny Ireland would be the backbone of the European economy?
The WSJ notes that the prospects for averting an EU recession hinge on Ireland and its lowest in the world corporate tax rate of 12.5%. According to the story: "Though Ireland accounted for just 2% of the eurozone’s combined economic output in 2014, Ireland has accounted for almost a fifth of all of the economic growth since then. Its share of the bloc’s GDP is now 4%."
It reminds us of an Arthur Laffer quip: Why is Ireland always a good place to invest in? Because the capital is always Dublin.
