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By Robert Romano The conference committee for H.R. 2, the farm bill, has stripped out its additional work requirements as a condition for collecting food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The provision would have required able-bodied adults to work a minimum of 20 hours a week starting in 2021 […]

By Robert Romano Are we nearing the end of the business cycle? The third quarter Gross Domestic Product remained unchanged at an inflation-adjusted, annualized 3.5 percent growth in the latest estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis . And although growth may be slowing down — the second quarter had 4.2 percent growth — the economy […]

By Robert Romano The Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Plans is set to deliver its recommendations to Congress by Nov. 30 on how to address 114 of the nation’s 1,400 multiemployer pension plans covering 1.3 million workers being underfunded by $36.4 billion . Of the $36.4 billion in unfunded liabilities, half of it or $17.2 billion is for […]

By Rick Manning The 2018 election got its closing argument from an unusual place on November 2: The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jobs versus mobs has become a popular slogan in the last month of the mid-term election campaign, but with the October employment […]

By Robert Romano While President Donald Trump continues to bring the pressure to China, so far with 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019, which comes atop another 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China, he is dialing up new […]

By Robert Romano The numbers for the end of Fiscal Year 2018 are in and they aren’t pretty for fiscal hawks, as the budget deficit increased by an eye-popping $113 billion to $779 billion. But it had nothing to do with tax cuts. Tax receipts rose by $14 billion. All of it was […]

By Natalia Castro Residents of Maryland were likely filled with pride when the USA Today state wealth index listed Maryland as the wealthiest state in the country. With the second lowest poverty rate and the highest median household income, one might assume Maryland has an engaged and efficient workforce. Unfortunately, […]