The much-faster-than-expected economic recovery that’s followed the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has produced several encouraging developments in the United States: low unemployment, rising wages, strong corporate profits, flattened or even falling poverty rates – just to name a few. And while the global spike in inflation that resulted from supply chain issues, CEO wealth grabs, and Russia’s war on Ukraine has taken a big toll on most households, that phenomenon has, thankfully, slowed significantly of late.
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public investments
public investments
Republican state policymakers’ efforts to boost fossil fuels by prohibiting their governments from doing business with companies that take sustainability into consideration has the potential to cost states millions, according to a study released Thursday. Researchers looked specifically at the possible effects on Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia if they passed Texas-like legislation limiting investment options on municipal bonds and found it could cost them between $264 and $708 million...
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Can morality play a role in capitalism? Should it? Human society has, of course, wrestled with this dilemma for centuries. For some market fundamentalists on the ideological right, all morality – at least when it comes to the roles of investors and consumers – is to be found in profits and bargains.
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The North Carolina House finally approved a proposed budget bill last week for the fiscal year that began six weeks ago. Now comes a period of negotiation with the Senate, which passed its version a few weeks before, and after that one hopes, some measure of legitimate give and take with Gov. Cooper.
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Americans have always been, in many respects, an optimistic and forward-looking people. Ours, happily, is not a nation overly obsessed with settling old international scores and grudges or constantly addressing perceived slights from past adversaries. One flip side to this admirable tendency, however, is what frequently amounts to a short collective memory.
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