US economy

Inside the real jobs crisis

After much talk of an economic slowdown, February brought reassuring headlines. The official unemployment rate had fallen as another 130,000 jobs were added to the US economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is good news, but it is not the whole story. The official unemployment rate counts only people actively looking for work – it does not capture those who would like a job but have stopped searching. The official unemployment rate is so narrow that it hides long-term changes in the economy. In fact, things are far worse than the official figures suggest. This matters for more than just economists. We tend to treat employment statistics

jobs labor

Are you long on America?

Donald Trump has completed the first year of his second presidency – and remains a truly divisive figure. He may have pulled back, after an absurd escalation, from his apparent threat to annex Greenland by force. But European leaders continue to berate him for his turbulent behavior in international affairs, and a growing number of Republicans are turning against his erratic foreign policy. Last week, the cry on global markets was “Sell America,” after the President ratcheted up trade hostilities with long-standing US allies by announcing yet another round of punitive tariffs on several European countries for refusing to agree that America should own Greenland outright. The US is a

Spending the last penny

I once knew a man so cheap he would call my dad to report that he’d found a nickel on the pavement of the local racetrack’s parking lot. I don’t know if Jim would have stooped to conquer a penny as well – I wouldn’t put it past him – but I like to think he’d join me in lamenting the demise of the American cent, our humblest coin, burked by order of President Donald Trump at the urging of Elon Musk, neither of whom will ever be mistaken for a small-is-beautiful fan. The last Lincoln cent headed for general circulation was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in November last