Government Releases Another Batch of Data That Wipes Out Previous Economic Gains

People moving refrigerator

New orders for manufactured durable goods, which serve as an indicator for longer-term investments from businesses and consumers, had a huge downward revision for January, following similar revisions seen in jobs data.

Orders for durable goods increased 1.4 percent in February to $277.9 billion, but January’s gains were revised down to -6.9 percent from an initial estimate of -6.1 percent, taking a huge chunk out of previously reported gains, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The revisions for durable goods orders mirror revisions in employment figures, which have repeatedly reported high growth figures that are later revised down, most recently being revised down for January by 124,000 while job growth for February was reported as 275,000.

Read More

More Inflationary Woes: In One Year, Car Insurance Rates Surge 26 Percent

Driver in car

Car insurance rates surged 26% nationwide in the past year and are expected to remain elevated until 2025.

That’s according to the “True Cost of Auto Insurance” report from Bankrate, an independent comparison service company.

Read More

Commentary: Immigration Drove America’s Biggest Population Growth Ever Recorded

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Immigration is behind the biggest annual population increase in the history of the United States, according to an independent research firm.

“US population grew +3.8M in 2023 – the largest one-year increase in US history,” tweeted Eric Finnigan of John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC) earlier this month.

Read More

Commentary: School Choice Keeps Spreading

Classroom

In just three years, the number of states with universal or near-universal private school choice programs has grown from zero to 10, and the number of students eligible for these programs has increased by 60%. According to the latest ABCs of School Choice – EdChoice’s comprehensive report about all matters pertaining to educational freedom—32 states (plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico) are using school choice as of 2023. Additionally, policymakers in 40 states debated 111 educational choice bills last year alone. Overall, approximately 20 million students—or 36% of all kids—are now eligible for some kind of private-choice program.

But what’s good for children and their families is problematic for the teachers’ unions and their fellow travelers. As such, on January 22—not coincidentally the beginning of National School Choice Week—the Partnership for the Future of Learning released a toolkit, maintaining that “voucher programs are “deeply rooted in segregation, racism, and discrimination.” The PFL, which is comprised of predominantly left-wing outfits—the National Education Association, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Learning Policy Institute, etc.—adds that private schools “do not have necessary accountability measures.”

Read More

Commentary: Charter Schools Rise to the Challenge

Due to pandemic-related issues, declining birthrates, inferior education, radical curricula, etc., government-run schools are bleeding students. Whereas traditional public schools (TPS) had 50.8 million students enrolled in 2019, the number had shrunk to 49.4 million one year later. The federal government now projects that public school enrollment will fall even further – to 47.3 million – by 2030, an almost 7% drop in 11 years.

Where are the kids going? The U.S. Census Bureau reports that families are moving to private schools and setting up home schools at a great rate. But what can parents do if they can’t home-school or afford a private school and there are no educational freedom laws on the books? Their option then would be charter schools, which are independently operated public schools of choice that aren’t shackled by the litany of rules and regs that TPS are encumbered with and, importantly, are rarely unionized.

Read More

American Income Falls as Inflation Increases, U.S. Census Bureau Says

Americans are bringing home less money as inflation squeezes family budgets, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday that real median household income fell in 2022 compared with 2021. Real median household income fell by 2.3% from $76,330 in 2021 to $74,580 in 2022.

Read More

U.S. Trade Deficit Grew Last Year

It is growing relentlessly. The U.S. trade deficit, the gap between what the nation imports and exports in goods and services, increased to $67.4 billion in December, an increase of $6.4 billion from $61.0 billion in November, revised, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The month-over-month figures on the deficit are part of a long-term trend in America.

For 2022, the deficit in goods and services hit $948.1 billion, rising $103.0 billion from 2021. “Exports were $3,009.7 billion, up $453.1 billion from 2021. Imports were $3,957.8 billion, up $556.1 billion from 2021,” the Census Bureau and BEA reported. 

Read More

Commentary: Income Inequality in America Is an Engineered Myth

The federal government significantly and intentionally misreports income distribution, sparking bad policies and political divisions.

That’s the argument former senator Phil Gramm and two other economists, Robert Ekelund and John Early, lay out in their compelling and essential new book, “The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate.”

Read More

Commentary: Republicans Can Thank the Federal Government’s Bungled 2020 Census for Their Razor-Thin House Majority

Republicans will soon take control of the House of Representatives, but with a margin so narrow it may prove difficult to achieve their legislative and oversight objectives. That margin might have been larger, were it not for egregious errors made by the U.S. Census Bureau in the 2020 census.

Come January, House membership will consist of 213 Democrats and 222 Republicans. A party must hold 218 of those seats to control the House. Thus, Republicans will have only a four-seat majority. That extremely narrow majority means that GOP leadership can lose any vote on any issue if only four Republicans defect and the Democrats stay united in opposition.

Read More

Retail Sales Fall in May as Prices Continue to Rise

The U.S. Census Bureau Wednesday released advance estimates of U.S. retail sales which showed those sales fell 0.4% in May.

Motor vehicle and parts dealers took the biggest hit, with sales dropping 3.5%. Electronics and appliance stores sales decreased 1.3%. Furniture and home furniture stores, as well as health and personal care stores, also experienced a decrease in sales.

Read More

Surge in Homeschooling Families Continues after Schools Reopen

The number of families homeschooling in the United States has remained significantly above pre-pandemic levels even though government schools have reopened.

The number of homeschooling students increased by 63% during the 2020-2021 school year in 18 states that shared data, AP reported. That percentage then dropped by only 17% in the next academic year.

Read More

New York City Population Dwindled by More Than 300,000 Last Year

New York City saw a population decline of more than 300,000 people over a 12-month span ending July 1, 2021, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The city’s population fell by 305,665 people or 3.5 percent. As The Empire Center noted, the metropolis accounted for almost all of the state’s one-year record decline.

Read More

U.S. Trade Deficit Hit a Record High in January

Several cargo boxes on a ship in the ocean

The U.S. trade deficit continued to grow in January as the import-export gap widened to a record high, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The trade deficit reached $89.7 billion in January, up $7.7 billion from December 2021’s $82 billion figure, the Census Bureau announced Tuesday. Economists surveyed by the WSJ predicted a January trade deficit figure of just $87.2 billion.

Read More

U.S. Trade Deficit Reached Record High in 2021 as Imports Surged

Several cargo boxes on a ship in the ocean

The U.S. trade deficit continued to grow in December as the import-export gap widened to record highs in 2021, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The trade deficit grew by 1.8% in December 2021 to $80.7 billion, the Census Bureau announced Tuesday, $1.4 billion above the revised figure from November 2021.

Read More

Tax Foundation: Taxation Plays Direct, Indirect Role in 2021 Population Shift

U-Haul truck

As more Americans move to lower-taxed Republican-led states, a new report by the Tax Foundation indicates that taxation levels play a direct and indirect role as factors contributing to migration patterns.

Taxes often “play an indirect role by contributing to a broadly favorable economic environment. And sometimes, of course, they play little or no role,” Jared Walczak, a vice president at the Tax Foundation, writes in an analysis of 2021 U.S. Census Bureau data and inbound and outbound migration data published by U-Haul and United Van Lines.

“The Census data and these industry studies cannot tell us exactly why each person moved, but there is no denying a very strong correlation between low-tax, low-cost states and population growth,” he wrote. “With many states responding to robust revenues and heightened state competition by cutting taxes, moreover, these trends may only get larger.”

Read More

Redistricting Lawsuit Filed, Democratic Groups Want Wisconsin Courts to Draw Maps Immediately

Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Census Bureau delivered Wisconsin’s 2020 Census numbers, a handful of voters have filed a lawsuit to toss out the state’s current political map, and have judges skip the legislature and draw new maps on their own.

The lawsuit will be heard in federal court in Madison. It argues that because of the Census data, the state’s current congressional and legislative maps are out of date, and cannot be used in any upcoming elections.

Read More

Census Report Shows Widespread Demographic Changes in the United States

Minority populations are increasing and the white majority is on the decline, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday.

Over the past decade, the white population grew by 10.5 million individuals, a 4.3% increase, while the Hispanic population grew by 10.1 million individuals, a 20% increase, the Census figures show. Among white people, there were 1.34 births for every death, whereas the Hispanic population had 5.81 births for every death, according to the report.

Read More

Professor Warns Coronavirus Campus Closures Could Have ‘Big Implications’ for 2020 Census

Campus closures because of the coronavirus pandemic could lead to students being undercounted in the 2020 Census, at least according to one professor at Texas A&M University.

Professor Dudley Poston, who teaches sociology, wrote an op-ed for The Conversation explaining how undercounting could occur, and how it could financially affect college communities. He argued that self-isolating at home, which for students means possibly returning to live with their parents, could affect “where and if they are counted.”

“And that could have big implications,” he added.

Read More