Washington gridlock may turn out to be the salvation of the Obama administration. Not only does gridlock allow the president to blame Republicans for not solving the financial crisis that his own runaway spending created, the inability to carry out as much government intervention in the economy as when the Democrats controlled both Houses [...]

In his dogged quest to boost employment, President Barack Obama has searched far and wide for new solutions. One provision in his American Jobs Act may very well have a positive impact on hiring. Just not in America. The section consists of a ban on discrimination against the unemployed. Some companies have posted ads that [...]

The Department of Labor is about to release figures on long-term unemployment that suggest a major shift in employment patterns in the U.S. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, about 26 percent of the unemployed have not held a job in more than a year. Liberals point to these figures as proof [...]

With unemployment rising and a U.S. debt-crisis looming, Americans haven't had much good news lately. But there is one bright spot on the policy front: Illegal immigration from Mexico has virtually stopped. Less than a decade ago, a half-million Mexicans were coming to the U.S. illegally every year, accounting for 60 percent of all illegal [...]

No one is more of a master of political talking points than President Barack Obama. Remember "shovel-ready projects"? These were construction projects where the shovels were supposed to start digging the moment the government gave them the "stimulus" money. Two years later, Obama can joke about the fact that the shovels were not as ready [...]

International trade has been one of the most powerful forces for prosperity in the history of the world. But a lot of Democrats, including the one occupying the Oval Office, treat it as a mixed blessing at best, requiring reparations for the alleged victims. That's the source of the fight between the president and congressional [...]

Last week, I noted that various forms of the word "unexpected" almost inevitably appeared in news stories about unfavorable economic developments. You can find them again in stories about Friday's shocking news, that only 54,000 net new jobs were created in the month of May and that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent. But with news [...]

Unexpectedly! As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy. "New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed," reported cnbc.com May 25. "Personal consumption fell," Business Insider reported the same day, "when it was expected to rise." "Durable [...]

As if more proof were needed about the minimum wage's devastating effects, yet another study has reached the same conclusion. Last week, two labor economists, Professors William Even (Miami University of Ohio) and David Macpherson (Trinity University), released a study for the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policies Institute titled "Unequal Harm: Racial Disparities in the Employment [...]

After following the Flash-driven interactive linked below, I feel like I actually understand why we have so much unemployment right now, even though we're in recovery mode. The interactive can't be imported, but you  should follow this link and watch it yourself.  I am so much better educated as a result of this series of [...]

This morning, on my way to Baltimore from Boston, this article by Daniel Henninger in the WSJ caught my attention. It’s about the growing new phenomenon in the U.S. of long-term joblessness, and more specifically, the danger of permanently high rates of youth unemployment. According to the latest statistics, the U.S. unemployment rate for workers under [...]

For months now, news outlets have been filled to overflowing with stories of the currently-and-impendingly jobless -- not surprising, given the dramatic effect unemployment has on those unfortunate enough to experience it. Still, this has got to be the strangest side-effect I've seen yet: In this troubled economy, you may be thinking about beefing up your [...]

According to Salon's Jennifer Bleyer, a significant number of young hipsters are using food stamps across the country -- and using them to buy things like organic vegetables, line-caught fish, and raw milk cheese. Although the majority of the 38 million Americans on food stamps are the "working poor, the elderly, and single parents on [...]

As readers know, I live in Michigan.  And our state is in one helluvan economic slump right now, due to a number of factors.  Pundits continue to talk about what caused this, taking a macro view of our economic situation.  I’d like to take a micro view – what unemployment and underemployment does to the [...]