At its peak in 2010, the unemployment rate in the Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir metropolitan area hit 15.3 percent, the highest in modern North Carolina history. Now the region has one of the state's most acute labor shortages.
Amid the furor over this month’s Helsinki summit between President Trump and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, one N.C. congressman sees potential for at least one positive outcome. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-11th District, hopes post-summit publicity will prompt his congressional colleagues to act on a critical issue. “This underscores what we…
One Carolina legacy of John Locke and his patron Anthony Ashley Cooper is the iconic city of Charleston, nestled between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, while the other can be found further north.
The News & Observer writes unquestioningly about another renewable energy industry report that promotes ongoing government favoritism for renewable energy. “Clean energy is becoming an increasingly important part of North Carolina’s economy,” begins the N&O. But the report itself, “Renewables on the Rise 2018” from the Environment N.C. Research & Policy…
Everyone loves lists, and the internet age now has us addicted to them — the top-five greatest tennis grand-slam finals between left-handers, the top 10 best-looking spouses of celebrity chefs, etc. Obviously, I jumped at the chance when asked to compile a list of such lists of North Carolina…
State policymakers should resist the urge to treat “Washington” as a cash machine, since it has no money to spit out unless it first taxes us or borrows against future tax hikes.
It would be easy to dismiss the recurring political battles between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-led General Assembly as pure partisan posturing. Easy. And wrong. A dissent from a case decided earlier this year in the N.C. Supreme Court offers a clue about why leaders of the executive…
North Carolina's tax reforms actually reduced our use of targeted tax incentives while dramatically increasing our use of pro-growth tax policy to encourage investment and job creation in the state.
Every first-semester student in macroeconomics learns a simple question. It’s the equation for measuring gross domestic product, or GDP, which is used to measure the size of state and national economies. Growth in GDP is used to demonstrate how well the economy is performing during a particular time period, usually for a…
I think a lot about the job market this time of year. This is because of all the graduations of high school and college seniors, and the fact many of them will be looking for their first full-time job. It’s a cliché to say these young people will be entering…
