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In a pair of affluent coastal California counties, the canary in the mineshaft has gotten splayed, spatchcocked and plated over a bed of unintended consequences, garnished with sprigs of locally sourced economic distortion and non-GMO, “What the heck were they thinking?” The result of one early experiment in a citywide $15 minimum wage is an ominous sign for the state’s poorer inland counties as the statewide wage floor creeps toward the mark. Consider San Francisco, an early adopter of the $15 wage. It’s now experiencing a restaurant die-off, minting jobless hash-slingers, cashiers, busboys, scullery engineers and line cooks as they...

Cannabis is joining the ranks of the financial, advertising, real estate and alcohol industries with the formation of its first self-regulatory organization. The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) launched Thursday with a powerhouse leadership team and an ambitious plan: Develop and enforce national standards that will increase compliance and transparency, spur growth, and shape future federal regulations. The NACB’s slogan is “Be ready,” in anticipation of federal legalization of cannabis. The cannabis industry is on a historic growth trajectory even as its businesses operate in a fractured regulatory environment and in the face of uncertain federal policy, NACB president...

While the Democrats and their media allies attempt to bring down the Trump presidency with a determination reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote’s pursuit of the Road Runner, the president’s efforts to shrink the size and scope of government are producing some very positive economic results. President Trump’s focus on reining in the administrative state has significantly reduced both the number of existing regulations and the output of new regulations, driving business optimism. Unlike policies that increase the oppressiveness of government, policies that incentivize business growth (like deregulation) produce jobs, opportunity and prosperity. It takes real determination to ignore the numbers....

CHINESE consumers’ spending on luxury goods is set to double to 1 trillion yuan (US$147 billion) by 2025, or 37 percent of the overall global luxury market, McKinsey said in a report yesterday. Chinese consumers will account for most of this 2.7 trillion yuan growth in value of the global luxury goods market, with more sophisticated Chinese buyers being a major force behind the rise. Around 7.6 million Chinese households spent an average of 71,000 yuan on luxury goods per year, according to McKinsey. Most of the luxury shoppers are turning from affluent consumers to wealthy consumers with average annual...

Outdoor shopping centres are drawing in customers who long ago wrote off the traditional mall experience through a modern mix of food, fashion and practicality. ATLANTA, United States — Pull into the parking lot of the Westside Provisions District, the mixed-use development in Atlanta’s gentrified Westside neighborhood, and you might have to hand your keys over to a valet to help you find a spot — especially on a Saturday afternoon. That’s because, unlike the downtrodden, two-penny outdoor shopping centres and abandoned enclosed malls weighing down the suburbs of the US, Westside Provisions is giving people a reason to swing...

California is widely celebrated as the fount of technical, cultural and political innovation. Now we seem primed to outdo even ourselves, creating a new kind of socialism that, in the end, more resembles feudalism than social democracy. The new consensus is being pushed by, among others, hedge-fund-billionaire-turned-green-patriarch Tom Steyer. g subsidies for the struggling poor and middle class. This new progressive synthesis promises not upward mobility and independence, but rather the prospect of turning most Californians into either tax slaves or dependent serfs. California’s progressive regime of severe land-use controls has helped to make the state among the most unaffordable...

President Donald J. Trump was in Ohio last week to gin up support in Middle America for his plan to modernize the nation’s infrastructure. The President, who overwhelmingly carried the Buckeye State, said it was “time to rebuild our country” and to “put America first.” “America must have the best, fastest and most reliable infrastructure anywhere in the world,” President Trump said. “We will fix it,” said Trump, standing along the Ohio River. “We will create the first-class infrastructure our country and our people deserve.” While his national numbers have taken a dive, the PPD Buckeye State Battleground Poll shows...

House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have issued a very promising report about President Trump so far in his presidency. Compared to his immediate predecessors, Mr. Trump is forging ahead in his bid to better the nation and move forward. “To date, President Trump has signed 37 bills into law, placing him ahead of the last four administrations,” the two Republican leaders noted in a report issued Thursday. (snip) “The Republican-led House has passed 158 bills, making it the most productive in the modern-era,” the pair said in their report, noting that during the equivalent passage...

Millennials are, according to Business Insider earlier this month, “Killing Chains Like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee’s.” This isn’t the first thing that we’ve killed and/or destroyed by stubbornly refusing to spend money on it. Last year millennials got accused of wiping out everything from mass-market beers like Budweiser and Coors to the diamond industry to bar soap. And, on behalf of all millennials, I can only say: You’re welcome. Because these institutions we’re obliterating are awful.

President Donald J. Trump accepted the invitation of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, to visit Poland in advance of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. The visit will reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies and emphasize the Administration’s priority of strengthening NATO’s collective defense. The leaders will discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues, deepening an alliance based on shared values and common interests. While in Poland, President Trump will deliver a major speech, and he will attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit to demonstrate our strong ties to Central...

Legendary investor Jim Rogers sat down with Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget on this week's episode of The Bottom Line. Rogers predicts a market crash in the next few years. One that he says will rival anything he has seen in his lifetime. Following is a transcript of the video. Blodget: One of the things I’ve always admired about you as an investor is that you don’t talk about what should be. You figure out what is going to be and then, you do that. So what is going to be with respect to the stock market? What’s going to...

Everything Trump has done, from cancelling business regulations to changes in trade, taxes, and health care, has been characterized as undertaken for the good for the economy. When Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord, reporters clamored to know if he still believed climate change is a hoax. The reason they received no answer is because withdrawal from the pact was, according to the White House, a case of Trump prioritizing American jobs. Americans have always rated the economy as an important election issue. They may not approve of Trump’s tweeting, but they are going to like the size...

As part of its "Infrastructure Week," the Trump administration is holding infrastructure-themed events around the country this week to promote $1 trillion of private and public infrastructure investment. Based on the 2018 budget outline, we know that the administration intends to seriously streamline the permit process, reduce regulatory barriers and encourage private investment. However, lost in the debate is the fact that the private sector is already the biggest player in the infrastructure sandbox; all the federal government needs to do is get out of the way. A little-known fact is that the private sector already owns and finances most...

"...Paramount among the city’s concerns is that many Americans are demanding Cuencans speak English and creating English-speaking neighborhoods within the city. “There is a large group for which learning a language is outside of their interests and, faced with the frustration of not being able to communicate, express annoyance with Cuencans who do not tend to their demands in English..."

President Trump has said on multiple occasions that he inherited an economic mess from his predecessor. The mainstream media fact checkers moved quickly to disprove him, pointing to the grossly misleading low unemployment rate as all the proof you need. While the current economy looks better on the surface compared to 2009, there are still many danger signs pointing to perhaps a second Great Recession coming much sooner than you think. Just about all presidents discuss the direness of the economy in order to quickly claim credit for any uptick in growth, blaming the current state of affairs on the...

Britain’s foreign secretary​ ​on Tuesday​ said​ ​there is “no reason” to cancel​ Donald Trump’s planned visit even though​ ​the president is embroiled in a running feud with the London mayor. “The invitation has been issued and accepted and I see no reason to rescind that,” Boris Johnson told BBC radio. “I do not wish to interpose myself between the Mayor of London and the President of the United States.”

Welfare abuse has been an ongoing issue that is becoming more and more serious. As of July 2014 the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that welfare is currently costing Americans $131.9 billion (not including food stamps OR unemployment). Food stamps cost roughly $46.4 million a year. How much of that is fraud is not clear, but what is obvious is that the system is broken. Recently a Muslim food stamp crime ring was broken up in Grand Rapids, MI. Three brothers Emad Khalil Karaein, Jawad Khalil-Ahmad Karaein, and Khader Khalil Karaein have plead guilty to welfare fraud. The brothers ran...

Listen to the responses from participating EU corporate comptrollers discussing climate and the entire purpose of the Paris Treaty becomes self-evident. Example: “The preservation of our competitive position is the precondition for successful climate protection. This correlation is often underestimated.” ~ Matthias Wissmann, President of German Auto Industry Group VDA The preservation of Germany’s competitive auto manufacturing position is contingent upon the U.S. exporting it’s wealth and handcuffing itself to a faux-climate treaty. Do not take my word for it, read Wissmann’s own interview. The Paris Treaty is nothing about climate, and everything about economics and multinational corporate interests.

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - Connecticut lawmakers were working at the State Capitol on Friday in the final days of the session. Democrats said they were finding it harder to get bills passed, now that Republicans have more seats and carry more weight. "They said they wanted to lead. They told the voters in the state of Connecticut give us more seats and we will be at the table,” House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said. “And you know what we have heard, we will offer no votes."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has a message for Corporate America: Help President Trump. "Help us restore normal political dialogue," Putin told executives from major U.S. companies during a business roundtable at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday. "I ask you on behalf of Russia, and I appeal to the American side: Help the newly elected president, the head of the United States administration," he said. Putin's audience included senior executives from Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Chevron (CVX), Philip Morris (PM) and Honeywell (HON). Relations between Russia and the U.S. have been in sharp decline since 2014, when Western...