By Robert Romano Are e-cigarettes a tobacco product? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seems to think so. In a rule proposed in April , the agency would define e-cigarette cartridges as a tobacco product under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act. That, even though e-cigarettes do not even contain any […]

By Robert Romano The old saying, “So goes retail, so goes the economy” is not without its rationale. A primary indicator of consumer confidence, retail spending has been rather predictive of overall economic performance since the Commerce Department began publishing the figures in 1992. When spending is […]

By Robert Romano “[T]he current jobless recovery, along with a longer-term trend toward income and wealth inequality, has some thinkers wondering whether the latest wave of automation is different from those that preceded it.” That was Slate.com senior technology editor Will Oremus reporting on a new study from Pew Research and Elon University titled “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs.” The […]

By Robert Romano One thing both advocates of free trade and opponents agree on is that exchange rates matter. Supporters , such as President Barack Obama, said in 2010 to Senate Democrats that “One of the challenges that we’ve got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially […]

By Robert Romano There is no question that younger people are working at a lower rate now than they were in 2000. What is not fully understood is why. Why, since July 2000, has the population of those aged 20-34 increased by almost 7.4 million, yet only […]

By Robert Romano Find out why young people can’t find work! Since March 2007, right before the Great Recession began, the population of those aged 20-34 — so-called millennials — has increased by almost 4.3 million to 64 million according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Only 44,000 of the 4.3 million — a little more than 1 percent — have […]

By Robert Romano “If allowed to proceed, the plan would represent a dangerous expansion of Kelo v. New London, (2005), and an extraordinary precedent under which private parties could finance the taking of any tangible or intangible property interest — commercial leases, business franchises, contract distribution rights, […]

By Robert Romano It is perhaps a rare day when Barack Obama, Patty Murray and Paul Ryan all agree on something, but here we are. The issue? Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the $57 billion a year program for individuals making less than $14,340. The Ryan document proposes that “If families […]

The full version of this article was published in the Daily Caller, linked below: By Nathan Mehrens You don’t have to be an economist to know that Main Street retailers are struggling. Drive through any downtown or shopping district and you can see how the […]

By Robert Romano One item that went largely unnoticed in June’s jobs report was a startling drop in the number of full-time jobs — a whopping 713,000 jobs were lost where the time of work is more than 34 hours a week. In the meantime, the number […]