President Trump’s feckless trade war is bludgeoning the bottom line of the Republican Party’s reliable rural base. But the party’s disregard for the economic interests of its own constituents goes well beyond barriers to Chinese markets. Small towns and rural areas, along with some Rust Belt metros, are falling ever […] Read more »
Americans’ View of Job Market Hits New High
Americans’ confidence in the U.S. job market is the highest in Gallup’s trend originating in 2001, with 71% in May saying now is a good time to find a quality job. CONT. Lydia Saad, Gallup Read more »
For Trump’s 2020 re-election, not all tariffs are created equal
Since his arrival in Washington, President Donald Trump has brought a different approach to trade, sparking fights with U.S. allies and adversaries in search of better deals. But as the 2020 election draws closer, a look at some of the numbers shows not all trade disputes are equal in the […] Read more »
Trump’s economy is booming, and Democrats can’t handle it
… As a Republican, one can only hope that the media is beginning to acknowledge that there’s hyperbole and then there’s downright disinformation when it comes to the tax law. But on May 3, the jobs report changed the political calculus. Democrats seemed to suddenly show symptoms of a kind […] Read more »
Most of America’s rural areas are doomed to decline
Sunset over an Iowa farm. BJontzPhoto/shutterstock.com David Swenson, Iowa State University Since the Great Recession, most of the nation’s rural counties have struggled to recover lost jobs and retain their people. The story is markedly different in the nation’s largest urban communities. I’m writing from Iowa, where every four years […] Read more »
Red counties are doing better under Trump — but not as well as blue cities
Large, mostly Democratic-leaning, metropolitan centers are consolidating their dominance of the national economy even as smaller, mostly Republican-leaning communities at their periphery show clear signs of economic revival under President Donald Trump, according to an extensive new analysis of regional economic dynamics published Tuesday. These twin trends — consolidation at […] Read more »