Free Republic

Overtime for NYPD cops will be cut to help pay for the city’s migrant crisis — even as police battle to rein in crime that is still higher than before the pandemic. Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, has told the city’s four uniformed agencies — police, fire, sanitation and corrections — to come up with plans to slash their OT costs. “The mayor will … issue a directive to implement an overtime reduction initiative for our city’s four uniformed agencies (NYPD, FDNY, DOC/DSNY),” Jiha said in a memo sent to city agencies Saturday “These agencies must submit a...

Walmart is paying some new store workers less than it would have three months ago, a sign that employers are seeking to cut labor costs as the once-hot market for hourly staff cools. The country’s largest private employer changed its wage structure for hourly workers in mid-July. [Snip] The wage-structure change comes after Walmart and other large employers have for years steadily raised wages and added benefits to attract workers in a tight labor market. The retailer’s latest move suggests that the stresses companies are facing in trying to find employees are easing and that they need to find ways...

Covid is the gift that keeps on giving … to lazy bureaucrats and teachers union members. And a horror for small businesses and students since small businesse go bankrupt and students suffer from lack of education. And now The Federal Government is fearmongering (hey, that’s all they do!) ANOTHER Covid outbreak with Deep State Joe Biden advocating for more Federal spending on vaccines and telling everyone to get yet ANOTHER vaccination. And wear useless masks as a sign of obidience to The Democrat Party. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that in August the number of full-time jobs dropped...

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein responded to a majority of Americans saying they’re living paycheck-to-paycheck and those who aren’t feeling the economy improving by acknowledging that “it’s early days for those wage gains,” and so he’s “very sympathetic to the idea that people need to see them continue, and I think if the job market stays tight, they will.” Guest host Alex Witt asked, “[A]s you know, a majority of Americans still say they are living paycheck-to-paycheck. So, what is the message to those people who don’t really...

We are livin’ la vida Bidenomics! The 30-year conforming mortgage rate is currently 7.23%, up 161% under Biden and Bidenomics (code for massive Federal spending on green initiatives that go to large Democrat donors and Ukrainian oligarchs). Meanwhile, M2 Money supply is up 9.4% under Biden. At the same time. home prices are UP 26% under Biden while Real Median Weekly Earnings are DOWN -5%. On a sad note, it looks like The Federal government is starting to rattle its Covid saber just in time for the 2024 Presidential election. Odds are the US will ramp up online voting, early...

The lowest wage that American workers are willing to take in order to accept a new job hit a record high this year, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey published Monday. The average “reservation wage” — or the minimum acceptable salary offer required for workers to switch jobs — hit $78,645 during the second quarter of 2023, according to the Fed’s latest survey of consumer expectations. That marks a nearly 8% increase from the same time last year when the average reservation wage hovered around $72,873. The year-over-year increase was most pronounced for workers over the...

The themesong of Bidenomics is Randy Newman’s “Mr. President,” Have pity on the working man instead of paying off green energy BIG donors. The massive green enegy spending spree by Biden and Congress (disguised as Inflation Reduction Act) is the keystone of Bidenomics. Or loadstone. Since Biden became President, hourly pay has risen 12%! Unfortunately, Bidenomics spending spree (along with endless Fed monetary stimulus) has caused inflation to rise 16%. That is a net -4% decline in REAL earnings. Actually, despite the marketing of Biden as being empathetic, I think Biden is singularly UNempathic. Which puts him in good company...

“Bidenomics is indeed working!” claims Karine Jean-Pierre. “Cost is going down … wages going up, that is Bidenomics.” Excuse me Karine. REAL weekly earnings growth remains negative as inflation outpaces weekly earnings growth. As of Q2 2023, REAL median weekly earnings growth is a dismal -3.57% YoY. And if you are black, Bidenomics has failed you even worse! Q2 Real weekly earnings growth for black households was -6.23% YoY. I wonder if the harpies on The View will discuss this?

“One of the most cowardly things ordinarily people do, Is to shut their eyes to facts.” – C.S. Lewis Okay, we know Biden lies constantly and misrepresents facts (hey, he is a politician like Adam Schiff (D-CA). But this graphic praising Bidenomics with Biden having created the most jobs (average per month) since Carter (notice they left out Democrat darling Jimmy Carter!!!). In this absurd graphic, Biden wins by “creating” over 400k jobs per month while Trump lost jobs per month. Riveting … except that it is completely misleading. Actually, the US economy added 12.53 million jobs after April 2020...

The Federal Reserve is watching July’s jobs report carefully. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US economy added 187k jobs in July, less than the expected 200k. US average hourly earnings continued at 4.4% year-over-year (YoY). However, the last core inflation reading was 4.8% YoY, so real wages continue to decline. Rent CPI for June was 7.8% YoY. Here is the rest of the story. In keeping in with Biden admin’s penchant of constantly fabricating data, both May and June numbers were revised sharply lower of course: May revised down by 25,000, from +306,000 to +281,000 June...

REAL MEDIAN WEEKLY EARNINGS GROWTH FOR MEN was -4.45% In April 2023, while the last reading prior to Covid under Trump was 6.674% YoY in February 2020. So, Bidenomics isn’t even back to Trump levels for men. Women, on the other hand, did show a gain since Carter, but still lower than the last month before Covid struck. Women’s real median weekly earnings growth YoY since Q2 2021 are down -5%. \ So, Bidenomics has been less sucky for women than men.

President Jimmy Carter is usually the bar for terrible Presidents. Under Carter, the US experienced economic stagnation and soaring inflation. At least it led to the election of Ronald Regan! So, Biden’s much mentioned Bidenomics have produced REAL MEDIAN WEEKLY EARNINGS FOR MEN that is currently below 1979 levels under Jimmy Carter. Even worse for Bidenomics, REAL MEDIAN WEEKLY EARNINGS GROWTH FOR MEN was -4.45% In April 2023, while the last reading prior to Covid under Trump was 6.674% YoY in February 2020. So, Bidenomics isn’t even back to Trump levels for men. I like this chart which I call...

Joe Biden loves to tout “Bidenomics” which is a top-down command economy model with massive Federal spending directed primarily at green energy. But remember that a pillar of Bidenomics is support for labor unions. But “Union Joe” will be remembered as “Inflation Joe” as inflation remains hot. But now the labor unions are threatening to stall the recent rise in real weekly earnings (finally above 0%!). Tensions between employees and employers are heating up this summer. Bloomberg reports 650,000 workers threaten to walk off the job and picket in the streets to secure improved benefits, wages, and other conditions amid...

Welcome to why I am always dubious about Federally-reported economic numbers, like GDP. GDP was adjusted up to 2% QoQ for Q1. But what was the reason for the dramatic revision? Net trade was the biggest change: exports were revised from 0.58% to 0.86%, while imports subtracted only -0.28% from the bottom line GDP, a big drop from the -0.57% subtraction previously. In total, net trade became a 0.58% contributor to growth, up from a tiny 0.01% booster in the latest revision, effectively responsible for almost all of the 1.3% to 2.0% GDP increase. Speaking of Bidenomics, REAL median weekly...

One of the biggest arguments in favor of mass immigration – whether of the legal or illegal variety – is that we need the workers. You’ve probably heard claims such as, “We need more workers,” or, “Immigrants do jobs Americans won’t do.” A recent article by American Compass CEO Oren Cass in The Atlantic magazine takes these arguments on, making the case that a labor “shortage” is actually a good thing. Cass’s solution: “If employers are struggling to find workers, they should offer better pay and conditions. If that comes at the expense of some profits, or requires some prices...

The federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released new price inflation data Tuesday, and according to the report, price inflation during May decelerated, coming in at the lowest year-over-year increase in twenty-six months. According to the BLS, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose 4.0 percent year over year in May before seasonal adjustment. That’s down from April’s year-over-year increase of 4.9 percent, and May is the twenty-seventh month in a row with inflation above the Fed’s arbitrary 2 percent inflation target. (More precisely, the Fed targets a two-percent rate in the PCE measure.) Meanwhile, month-over-month inflation rose 0.1 percent...

Okay, Joe Biden was generally regarded as the dumbest member of the US Senate and mean-spirited (I won’t repeat podcaster Joe Rogan’s opinion of Biden). Now we realize how brazenly corrupt Biden is (taking bribes from China and Ukraine to influence American poliicies). Not only is Biden an attrocious human being, but his policies have damaged the US middle class terribly thanks to inflation. Yes, inflation is slowing, Inflation (CPI YoY) slowed to 4% in May, twice The Fed’s target rate of inflation. And core inflation is still raging at 5.3% YoY. Real weekly wage growth is -0.7% YoY, the...

In 2022, the U.S. population stood at 333 million. Of that, roughly 60% were employed in various jobs, positions, and sectors in the U.S. economy.But where did all these people work? What jobs did they do and what positions did they hold? Where do most Americans do their nine-to-five?Using data from the National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates (2022) put out by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao reimagines the employed American workforce as only 100 people, to find out answers.Interestingly, the data contains a mix of information demarcations. Some are job-specific (type of work),...

Another dismal economic report under “Middle class” Joe Biden. April’s inflation report is out and … it sucks. Core inflation (CPI less food and energy) remains elevated at 5.5% YoY, much higher than The Fed’s target rate of 2%. Even worse, US REAL average weekly wage growth is negative again at -1.1% YoY, negative growth for the 25th straight month. Turns out that core inflation is higher than overall inflation. 4.9% YoY compared to core of 5.5% YoY.

Getting that pizza delivered could cost $5 to $7 more if the city adopts a new pay rate for delivery-app workers. A controversial proposal by the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would hike pay for GrubHub, UberEats, and DoorDash delivery workers far past the $15 minimum wage. Under one plan, deliverers would be paid $33.27 per hour for time spent on active delivery. A second plan would pay them $19.96 hourly for the total time spent online and delivering. A final decision from the agency is expanded soon. The hikes would go into full effect in 2025. A...