1) Trump Effect: Small Biz Confidence Soars

First it was the surge in the stock market, then record Thanksgiving shopping, a boom in consumer confidence and now... business optimism shoots through the roof. 

That's the finding from the just-released survey by the NFIB. 

Small business optimism soared in the wake of the election, posting the largest one-month gain in the 39-year monthly history of the survey. The share of firms planning to increase employment rose in November to the highest level since May 2023.  

Why the spurt? "Small business owners are much more confident about the outlook given an anticipated shift in economic policy following the election..."
 

The one danger spot: "Twenty percent of owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business." We hope Jerome Powell at the Fed is paying attention.
 

2) Which Is More Deadly: A Colder or Warmer Planet?

One inconvenient truth for the global warming apocalyptics is that far more people die from cold weather than heat. It isn't even close. The consensus opinion is that "moderate cold [versus moderate warming] dominates temperature-related deaths across most of the world." 

Here is the best and most recent data available:

Yet in a hit piece aimed at our friend and incoming Energy Secretary under Trump, Chris Wright of Liberty Energy, the Wall Street Journal's Benoît Morenne mocks Wright for the view "that global warming probably reduces modestly the number of annual deaths related to extreme temperatures."

In a classic case of journalistic contortion, Morenne counters: "Recent estimates from health researchers suggest otherwise. They say that in coming decades, the rise in extreme heat-related deaths will outweigh the decline in extreme cold-related deaths."

What health researchers, exactly? The ones who put ideology over facts? The ones who get million dollar grants from the government? Who are you going to believe: tens of thousands of years of evidence or predictions by "health researchers?"

In our book, Wright has the story exactly right: "Climate change... is a real and global phenomenon but it should be treated honestly and evaluated as trade-offs not as a religion or a cult."
 

Chuck Schumer is trying to sneakily lock in a Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board by reconfirming chair Lauren McFerran for another five-year term.
 

Traditionally, the chairs of all the so-called independent agencies resign when a new president takes office, allowing the president to appoint a chair of his own party. Not this time, if the Democratic plan succeeds:

National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran said she would "of course" continue to serve at the agency if confirmed to a third term by the Senate, as shifts under an incoming Trump administration loom.

"While that decision is out of my hands at this point, I'm a public servant and would, of course, continue to serve if that is what I'm called to do," she told Bloomberg Law.

The NLRB under McFerran has been a nightmare for small and large employers. She led Biden's war on franchising, tried to ban employers from holding meetings to make the case against unionization, and tried to force companies to accept "card check" organizing without secret ballot elections. She even tried to censor Elon Musk, ordering this tweet taken down:

Most of her handiwork was stopped by the courts. For now, at least.

If Schumer's gambit succeeds, Trump should immediately fire McFerran. This will go to the courts where we are confident Trump – as head of the Executive Branch – will prevail.
 

Last spring, Governor Greg Abbott - with support from Unleash Prosperity Now members and many other groups - led a dramatic effort to beat school choice opponents in the Texas legislature in the Republican primary. 

The results were spectacular.  A total of 15 anti-school choice Republicans were sent packing as punishment for killing Abbott's signature bill to establish universal education savings accounts. Abbott declared he would have "enough votes to pass school choice" in the new legislative session beginning January 14.  

But in the Texas House, Dade Phelan, the powerful Texas House Speaker who has dragged his feet on choice, is stepping down and backed his protege Dustin Burrows as a replacement.

The House Republican Caucus wisely rejected Burrows over the weekend in favor of school choice supporter David Cook.  

But Burrows has now abandoned the caucus rules requiring all GOP members to support the caucus nominee for speaker. His supporters have teamed up with 38 liberals in an attempt to seize the Speakership in exchange for the Left being given power over policy and key committee chairmanships.

It is a betrayal of epic proportions. 

The intrigue will continue for another month, but school choice supporters are adamant that Cook should be speaker. Running in favor of school choice, Republicans won 56% of the votes cast for State House last November, up from 52% in 2022. It would be a travesty to see the Left retain a share of power and use it to slow down the adoption of choice scholarships that would benefit three million Texas school kids.
 

Last month's election saw Donald Trump and other Republican candidates improve their showing with Hispanic and Asian voters across the board. 

That progress is continuing. On Saturday, Republican Sid Edwards – despite being outspent six-fold by the Democrats – won 54% of the vote to defeat a two-term Democratic incumbent for the office of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He will now preside over an area that combines the state capital with surrounding suburbs and has half a million residents. The parish is only 42% white and hasn't voted Republican for president in over 20 years Edwards clearly made inroads in minority areas.
 

Edwards, a well-known high school football coach, campaigned on addressing Baton Rouge's rising crime rates, high taxes and homelessness. These are the urban problems that have been created by "progressive"  governance for many years. We expect more such victories for common sense policies in the months and years ahead.

On the occasion of Paul Krugman's retirement from the New York Times, we share his most famous quote along with a contrary view from a superior Nobel Prize winner:
 

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