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2) Last Year’s Employment Total Was Revised Downward by One Million Jobs
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The jobs market is undeniably strong, as Friday’s employment report for January confirmed. But not as strong as being touted. What wasn’t reported in most of the media celebration was that in 2023 there were 1.2 million fewer Americans employed than previously reported throughout the year. Our ace economist EJ Antoni shows that the average revisions per month were a little more than 100,000, or 1.25 million for the year.
Downward Job Revisions in 2023
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Meanwhile, average hourly work per week is falling because of a surge in part-time employment. Part-time employment has risen by roughly 1.6 million over the past three years. We’re not against people working part-time, but fewer hours worked means smaller paychecks and more financial stress for families.
Part-Time Jobs Up, Full-Time Jobs Down
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3) Florida Grand Jury Reports: COVID Lockdowns Didn’t Work
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The findings are not news to HOTLINE readers who have been reading these pages from the start and who are familiar with Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke's definitive book on the subject, but they confirm the plain realities of the data that our expert class has strenuously denied for nearly four years now.
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CTUP's own COVID Commission is putting the finishing touches on our own "lessons learned" report that covers this ground and more. Stay tuned.
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4) One Hundred Years of False Hopes and Hype on Electric Cars
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Almost everything that could go wrong with the electric vehicle market HAS gone wrong in the last 18 months. Batteries starting on fire; EVs stalling out in frigid winter months; chargers not working; rental car agencies selling off their EV fleets; Ford and others taking billion-dollar losses; and thousands of auto dealerships telling the factories to stop shipping EVs because nobody wants them. Steve Forbes has a nice summary of the problems in this piece below:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2023/01/06/the-expensive-and-harmful-truth-about-electric-vehicles/?sh=49ef69d7547c
This hasn’t persuaded blue states and the Biden Administration to move forward with their plans to outlaw gas cars over the next decade or so.
But energy expert Robert Bryce — who publishes a must-read Substack column — tells us there is nothing new about all this hype about electric vehicles. Turns out these false promises are as old as Henry Ford’s Model T. We thought you’d get a chuckle out of some of these expert predictions:
- In 1901 the Los Angeles Times declared, “The electric automobile will quickly and easily take precedence over all other” types of motor vehicles.
- In 1911, the New York Times reported that the electric car “has long been recognized as the ideal solution” because it “is cleaner and quieter” and “much more economical.”
- In 1915, the Washington Post wrote that “prices on electric cars will continue to drop until they are within reach of the average family.”
- In 1959, the New York Times touted the “Old electric [vehicle]. May be the car of tomorrow.”
- In 1967, the Los Angeles Times reported that American Motors Corporation was on the verge of producing an electric car, the Amitron, powered by lithium batteries. The story proclaimed: “We don’t see a major obstacle in technology. It’s just a matter of time.”
- In 1979, the Washington Post claimed General Motors had achieved “a breakthrough in batteries” that “makes electric cars commercially practical.” The new batteries will provide the “100-mile range that General Motors executives believe is necessary to successfully sell electric vehicles to the public.”
- In 1980, the Washington Post claimed “practical electric cars can be built in the near future.”
A skeptic might conclude that electric cars always have been and always will be the cars of the future.
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5) Beware: Don’t Roll Your Eyes When You Read This
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If you want to know why radical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are so harmful and disruptive, look no further than Britain. An entire industry has been spawned by the UK’s DEI programs, which include training people to spot and put an end to “Microaggressions.”
According to training materials, Microaggressions include “tiny, often unconscious gestures, facial expressions, postures, words and tone of voice which can influence how included (or not included) the people around us feel.” Lawyers are scouting out these acts of “aggression” and bringing lawsuits against employers and employees for hurting a fellow worker’s feelings.
This racket is becoming big business. Many British employers are spending as much as $1,300 a person to "train" employees not to scoff, roll their eyes, or stare at their mobile phones because this could be evidence of sexual or racial discrimination. Everyone is encouraged to ritually “nod their heads to promote transparency and inclusion.”
Will this madness come across the ocean? It already has.
We have a better idea: why not just tell employees to treat their fellow workers with respect and dignity?
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6) This Could Solve a Lot of Problems
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