Category: Economy

Automakers Lay Off More Workers as Strike Takes Its Toll

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Major automakers have laid off even more employees as union workers continue to strike at several manufacturing plants amid contract negotiations, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ford and General Motors laid off an additional 500 workers this week, bringing the total number of workers that have lost their jobs at the companies to a combined 6,000 following a strike from the United Auto Workers (UAW), according to the WSJ. UAW is currently striking against Ford, GM and Stellantis at 43 manufacturing plants using a targeted strike strategy, with many workers remaining on the job as contract negotiations continue.

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Commentary: No Jobs for White Men

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

A recent Bloomberg investigation reported on a shocking development: “The year after Black Lives Matter protests, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs — 94% went to people of color.” While only 6% of jobs at these top companies went to whites, white people make up 77% of the total U.S. workforce and about 60-65% of the adult population.

This means that after 2020’s summer of rioting for “racial equity,” all whites, and particularly young people seeking entry-level positions after college, were deprived of employment by large institutional employers on a massive scale.

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Expert Estimates $25 Billion of Fraud Annually in Federal Food Stamp Program

The Center Square

A security expert says Congress should reduce food stamp fraud as it faces a Saturday deadline to renew the Farm Bill.

Haywood Talcove is the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Government Group, which provides fraud prevention tools to 26 state unemployment programs and 50 U.S. banks.

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Investors Say They are Betting Inflation Is Here to Stay

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff
Wall Street sign

Investors bet on the U.S. entering an era of sustained high inflation as Treasury yields spike, according to Reuters.

The bond market has seen a surge in interest rates for 10-year Treasury yields, reaching 4.59 percent, the highest point since September 2007 before the country was sent into a recession just months later, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The state of the bond market indicates that investors believe that the age of low inflation and interest rates is over as the country enters a “high-pressure equilibrium,” driving inflation higher than what was previously considered normal, according to Reuters.

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Eventbrite Cancels De-Transitioner Chloe Cole Event for Violating Policy Against ‘Hateful, Violent, and Dangerous Events’

Just the News

Eventbrite has canceled an event speaking out against the treatments and surgeries being done to transitioning minors, citing that it violates a policy on “hateful, violent, and dangerous events.”

The event will be hosted by the Palmetto Family Council in South Carolina and will feature de-transitioner Chloe Cole. It’s set to take place on Nov. 7.

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Energy Groups Call on Biden to Revise ‘Punitive’ Leasing Regulation Plan

The Center Square

Fourteen U.S. energy groups have called on the Biden administration to prioritize U.S. energy production and American’s energy needs by developing fair and consistent federal leasing regulations.

They submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over a newly proposed Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule. The rule implements changes related to royalty rates, rentals, and minimum bids for BLM-issued oil and gas leases and updates bonding requirements for leasing, development and production.

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UAW Reaches ‘Tentative Agreement’ with Mack Trucks in Three States

The Center Square

The United Auto Worker’s Union has reached a “tentative agreement” on a new five-year agreement with the Volvo-Group-owned Mack Trucks in three states.  The union posted on social media that nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida (UAW Region 8 & Region 9) have a tentative agreement.

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The Border Crisis Is Crippling U.S. Companies’ Supply Chains

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Trade across the U.S.-Mexico border is being severely hampered due to an ongoing migrant crisis that is threatening businesses’ supply chains, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The southern border is facing a massive influx of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally, with the U.S. Border Patrol reporting that a record high of 22,000 illegal migrants were being held in custody on Tuesday as opposed to just 7,696 on June 8. Trade that U.S. companies rely on for their supply chains is being hampered due to delays at points of entry that are being shut down by Border Patro to address the surge, according to the WSJ.

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Tobacco Company-Owned Food Brands More ‘Tempting’ than Competitors: Addiction Study

The Center Square

Food brands owned by tobacco companies produce foods that are more hyperpalatable than those produced by non-tobacco companies, new research from the University of Kansas shows.

The research found that they are more likely to feature “purposely tempting combinations of salts, fats, and sugars,” according to a press release from the University of Kansas.

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E-Buses Bought from Now-Bankrupt Manufacturer in Wyoming Are Now All Out of Commission

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

A Democratic enclave in Wyoming purchased electric buses to reduce emissions, but the buses are indefinitely inoperable after their manufacturer went bankrupt earlier this summer, the Cowboy State Daily reported.

Jackson, Wyoming, and Teton County formed the Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) system, which bought eight electric buses from Proterra to add to its fleet of 31 diesel buses, the Cowboy State Daily reported. Proterra, which itself was at the center of a conflict of interest controversy including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, went bankrupt in August, and START’s eight e-buses are now out of commission given that the manufacturer can no longer readily supply the parts needed for repairs.

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Consumer Confidence Plummets as Biden Approval Rating Slumps

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Morning Consult’s U.S. consumer sentiment index in September declined to its lowest point in months as voters voice concerns over President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.

Consumer confidence is decreasing once again after having risen over the course of 2023 following lows during 2022, according to Morning Consult. Moreover, as Americans remain pessimistic about their finances, they are increasingly souring on the president’s job performance, with 56% of Americans disapproving of Biden in recent Washington Post-ABC News and NBC News polls, up from previous figures.

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Under Biden, Bankruptcies Are Rising for the First Time in over 13 Years

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Bankruptcies are rising for the first time in years as more Americans feel the pressure of declining economic conditions without the reprieve of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic-era aid programs.

Americans filed more than 39,000 personal bankruptcy cases in August 2023, up 18% year-over-year, with bankruptcies beginning to spike after reaching record lows in 2021 and 2022, with the number of filings rising for all chapters for the first time year-over-year since 2010, according to data from the U.S. Courts. The number of bankruptcies is rising as Americans are increasingly burdened by high interest rates and falling real wages, while the COVID-19 pandemic stimulus and programs that were buoying Americans with debt begin to lose effect, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Retailers Lost Billions of Dollars to Shoplifters in 2022, Survey Shows

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Retailers lost more than $112 billion to crime in 2022, a roughly 19% increase in losses from 2021, a survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Loss Prevention Research Council found.

At least 28% of businesses who responded to the survey reported that they had closed locations because of organized retail theft, while 30% reduced or altered their in-store product selections. Out of the 177 retail brands surveyed, 88% said that shoplifters had become somewhat more or much more violent in 2022 compared to the previous year.

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TikTok Employees Raise Concern over CCP Influence as China Execs Move In

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Some employees at the popular social media platform TikTok are concerned about the influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has on the company as executives from its parent, ByteDance, take on new positions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A number of high-level executives from ByteDance in China have taken on new roles at TikTok’s U.S. operation, with employees complaining internally that there may be greater CCP influence than what is being publicly disclosed, according to the WSJ. The China-based ByteDance is subject to CCP regulation and can be pressured by the government to hand over information that the company has collected, which has in the past raised concerns over whether American users of the app are having their data collected by the foreign government.

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Pennsylvania’s $650 Million Windfall May Soon Vanish

The Center Square

The Pennsylvania Treasury’s “dramatic” revenue gains may soon come to an end, according to a recent independent analysis.

Before 2019, investing unused state funds netted the treasury between $8 million to $72 million in revenue. As an analysis from the Independent Fiscal Office noted, revenue was only $9 million in fiscal year 2020-21.

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U.S. Regulators Sue Amazon for Allegedly Inflating Prices Through Monopoly

Just the News

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon on Tuesday for allegedly using its power as a monopoly to illegally block competition and inflate prices.

“The complaint alleges that Amazon violates the law not because it is big, but because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging,” the FTC said in an announcement about the complaint against Amazon. 

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Worker Freedom Group: There Are Protections for Auto Workers Who Don’t Want to Strike

M.D. Kittle

As Big Labor-bought President Joe Biden made his trip to Detroit on Tuesday for a photo-op stop on the United Auto Workers (UAW) picket lines, a worker freedom organization reminded those swept up in the UAW action that there are protections for workers who don’t want to strike. Nearly two…

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Ford Pauses Michigan EV Battery Plant, Union Says Decision Is ‘Barely-Veiled Threat’ to Cut Jobs

Just the News

Ford is pausing work on its $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant over concerns that the automobile manufacturer will be unable to operate the planned Michigan factory competitively in a decision that the United Auto Workers union says is a “barely-veiled threat” to cut jobs amid a strike against the company.

Officials have not made a final decision on whether the plant, which is set to be located in southern Michigan near the town of Marshall, will become operational, Ford spokesperson T.R. Reid said, CNN reported Monday.

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Voters Overwhelmingly Side with the GOP on the Economy: Poll

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Republicans hold a commanding lead among voters’ views toward which party handles the economy better as President Joe Biden continues to pitch his economic policy to the American people, according to a new NBC News poll.

Republicans lead Democrats 49% to 28% among registered voters surveyed on the economy, which is the largest lead in NBC polling since 1991, according to NBC News. Biden has sought to sell his economic policy, dubbed “Bidenomics,” to Americans, which consists of high-spending stimulus programs and green energy subsidies.

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2023 Could See Highest Number of People on Food Stamps Since 2016

The Center Square

The 2023 fiscal year is on track to average the highest number of individuals on food stamps in the U.S. since 2016.

There were 42,329,101 on food assistance on average each month on through the first nine months of the fiscal year, as of June 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The fiscal year is completed at the end of September.

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U.S. Is Top Exporter of Liquified Natural Gas in First Half of 2023

The Center Square

The U.S. exported more natural gas in the first six months of 2023 than in any other previous six-month period, the U.S. Energy Information Agency reported. 

U.S. companies averaged 12.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in the first six months of this year, an 11% increase from their average over the same period last year. This is after in May of this year, the U.S.’s “net natural gas exports as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and by pipeline averaged a monthly record high of 13.6 Bcf/d.” 

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Pittsburgh to Get Twice-a-Day Amtrak Service to New York

The Center Square

Thanks to an agreement between Norfolk Southern and Amtrak — and a $200 million investment from the commonwealth — western Pennsylvania will have more passenger rail coming through Pittsburgh.

On Friday, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a passenger rail expansion for Amtrak’s New York City-Harrisburg-Pittsburgh service, going from once daily to twice daily.

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Elon Musk’s Brain Chip Company Is Officially Recruiting Humans for Testing

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Billionaire Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink is officially recruiting human beings for a clinical trial, the biotech firm announced on Tuesday.

The trial will be open to individuals with quadriplegia resulting from cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Neuralink announced on its website. It seeks to assess the brain implant’s safety, the performance of its “surgical robot” and gauge the chip’s effectiveness in allowing paralyzed people to influence external devices through their thoughts.

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San Francisco Homeless Camps Hit Highest Number in Three Years

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The number of homeless camps that have sprouted up all across San Francisco is now at the highest point since 2020.

The Daily Caller reports that more people moved into homeless shelters in just the first six months of 2023 than during any other six-month period since 2021, according to information compiled by the San Francisco Standard. There are 523 homeless camps in the city as of July of this year, the highest total since 530 camps in October of 2020. Across these 523 camps, there are over 4,000 homeless people in San Francisco.

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UAW Announces Massive Expansion of Strike Against Major Automakers

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The United Auto Workers (UAW) announced on Friday that more workers will go on strike as the union and automakers continue to be unable to reach a deal.

The union announced that 38 new plants across the U.S. will join the partial strike at noon against the Big Three automakers as negotiations continue to fail to produce a new contract for the 146,000 workers, with strikes expanding against GM and Stellantis but not Ford, as the company has cooperated more than the others, according to the UAW announcement. The UAW first announced its partial strike on Sept. 14, striking at three plants: GM’s plant in Wentzville, Missouri; Ford’s plant in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

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Chinese Chip Company Appears to Be Skirting U.S. Sanctions: Report

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

A top Chinese tech company has been able to push out fresh Chinese-made semiconductors despite years of U.S. restrictions, according to Reuters.

HiSilicon, Huawei Technologies’ chip design unit, has increased delivery of semiconductors to surveillance camera manufacturers over the last year after the company was able to produce new tools to create more advanced chips in March, according to Reuters. The U.S. has put a number of sanctions on the semiconductor industry, with Huawei in particular being placed on the entity list by the Department of Commerce in 2019, prohibiting it from working with American companies.

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Senate and House Campaign Security Spending Increases over 500 Percent in Two Years

Just the News

House and Senate campaign security budgets were more than 500% higher in the 2022 midterms than they were during the 2020 election season, according to a new analysis.

The House and Senate spent $1.3 million on security for their 2020 campaigns but spent nearly $8 million in 2022, “The Washington Post” reported Monday, citing Federal Election Commission records. 

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Government Jobs Increasing Under Biden

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

A significant portion of the jobs that have been added to the U.S. economy under Biden consists of government jobs and other public sector positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

As the Daily Caller reports, a total of 327,000 public sector jobs have been added to the economy from January to August of 2023, accounting for 17.4% of all jobs. During the same period of time in 2022, only about 175,000 public sector jobs were added, amounting to just 5% of all jobs. Overall job growth has also been slower in 2023, with a total of 1,884,000 jobs added this year compared to 3,590,000 jobs added during the same period in 2022.

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Auto Union Threatens Even More Strikes If a Deal Isn’t Reached by End of Week

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

More auto workers are set to go on strike against top auto manufacturers if a deal is not met by Friday at noon, according to an announcement from the union Monday night.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) are currently engaging in a targeted strike at just three plants in negotiations with the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — avoiding a total strike of all 146,000 unionized workers after the parties failed to reach a deal for new contracts on Sept. 14. Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, announced that more members at different plants would join the strike if the union and automakers did not make serious progress on new contracts by Friday at noon, according to a video posted by the union.

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Goldman Sachs Quietly Scrubs Race-Based Eligibility Criteria From Diversity Program After Legal Experts Raise Concerns

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Goldman Sachs quietly scrubbed references to race from its eligibility criteria for a two-day “diversity symposium” after legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation the program could run into problems with federal civil rights laws.

The eligibility criteria for Goldman Sachs’ 2023 MBA Diversity Symposium previously restricted the program to students “that identify as Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, or women,” according to a web archive from Sept. 13. The eligibility requirements no longer include race or gender, the current webpage shows, a change that follows a Saturday DCNF report on race and gender-restricted opportunities for college students offered by top Wall Street investment banking firms.

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National Deficit, Inflation Soars Despite ‘Inflation Reduction Act’

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office reports that the federal government is borrowing far more this fiscal year than the year before even as inflation continues to rise.

The CBO released its deficit estimate which said the U.S. deficit hit about $1.5 trillion in the first 11 months of this fiscal year.

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Government Estimates Unemployment Fraud During Pandemic Cost Up to $135 Billion

The Center Square

The U.S. government estimated unemployment fraud during the pandemic cost taxpayers up to $135 billion or about 11% to 15% of the total amount of unemployment insurance benefits paid during the pandemic.

That’s according to the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which the U.S. Department of Labor disputes. 

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Lithium Mine Reopening on Strength of $239.7 Million in Federal Grants

The Center Square

A Kings Mountain lithium mine shuttered since 1988, estimated capable of supporting the production of 1.2 million electric vehicles annually for 30 years, will reopen.

Charlotte-based Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of lithium, received a $90 million grant from the Department of Defense this week to expand domestic production of the raw mineral used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries. The grant follows a $149.7 million grant Albemarle received from the Biden administration last year for a North Carolina processing facility.

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Commentary: Bidenomics Is Hurting Families

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

It is no mystery that the core demographics for the Democratic Party include single women, blacks and Hispanics. In 2020, Biden won unmarried women 63 percent to 36 percent over former President Donald Trump, blacks 87 percent to 12 percent and Latinos 65 percent to 32 percent, according to the CNN exit poll.

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

The Center Square

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.

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Producer Prices Spike in August

The Center Square

Newly released federal inflation data shows that producer prices spiked in August, undoing a steady downward inflationary trend.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Producer Price Index Thursday, a key marker of inflation, which showed producer prices rose 0.7% in August alone. Much of that increase came because of an rise in the cost of gasoline.

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Autoworkers Strike Imperils ‘Union Joe’ Biden’s 2024 Election Prospects

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

President Joe Biden may face headwinds in his 2024 reelection bid following his inability to prevent workers at the three biggest American auto manufacturers from striking, according to Politico.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) announced a strike Thursday night against the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — saying that members would not be showing up to three plants on Friday, but stopping short of calling for all 146,000 unionized autoworkers to cease operations. Some have begun to place blame on the president for failing to help in negotiations, souring the president’s desired image of being “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” according to Politico.

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United Auto Workers Plans Strikes at Detroit Big Three Vehicle Manufacturers

Just the News

The United Automobile Workers union is preparing to strike at Detroit’s Big Three vehicle manufacturers as contract negotiations remain strained ahead of the deadline just before midnight Thursday.

Union President Shawn Fain said Wednesday that General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, formerly known as Chrysler, increased initial wage offers while rejecting some other demands, The Associated Press reported.

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Inflation Surges Above Expectations Despite Fed’s Rate Hikes

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Inflation rose significantly in August, marking the second month in a row that inflation has ticked up, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Wednesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods, increased 3.7% on an annual basis in August, compared to 3.2% in July, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 4.3% year-over-year in August, compared to 4.7% in July.

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Child Poverty More than Doubled in Biden’s Second Year, Census Data Shows

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The U.S. saw a sharp rise in the government’s supplemental poverty rate and a fall in real incomes for Americans in 2022, with the rate for children more than doubling, according to census data released Tuesday.

The government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which calculates poverty by including the impact of government programs, geographic variation in housing expenses, taxes and medical expenses, increased for children from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022, while overall poverty increased by 4.6 points to 12.4% during President Joe Biden’s second year in office, according to a release from the U.S. Census Bureau. Biden blamed the rise in child poverty seen under his tenure on the lapse of the expanded Child Tax Credit, according to a Friday statement from the White House.

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Potential UAW Strike Looms in Michigan

The Center Square

Up to 146,000 United Auto Workers could strike starting this week if the Big Three auto companies don’t reach a new union contract agreement by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. 

UAW Union President Shawn Fain has repeated his mantra “record profits mean record contracts.” He says Big Three executives at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have received hefty pay raises while inflation has eaten away at UAW workers’ paychecks.

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Chicago Public Schools Refuses to Release Records Detailing Gender and Sex Education Training

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district refused a Daily Caller News Foundation Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding training materials used for its gender and sexuality lessons provided by the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

CPS paid over $90,000 from January 2021 to as recently as June 6 for a number of workshops and trainings that the hospital provides through its Sexuality Education Program, according to invoices obtained by the DCNF. In a follow-up FOIA request, the DCNF asked that CPS provide any “presentations, slideshows, curriculum materials, videos [and] handouts” used for the training, but the district refused on Aug. 25 in a email, saying the information was “exempt from disclosure” since it involved “course” and “research materials” used by staff.

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Corporate America Slowly Backs Away from ‘Diversity’ Language in Wake of Supreme Court Decision

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

American businesses have been moving away from using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) language in the workplace after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in June, according to Bloomberg Law.

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More Americans Taking Second Jobs, Part-Time Work as Inflation Continues to Rage

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

An increasing number of Americans are taking up part-time work and even getting second jobs as worsening economic conditions such as high inflation have chipped away at their finances, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The median real weekly earnings for Americans are down 2.1% since the first quarter of the Biden administration, with data from August showing a spike in the unemployment rate and a job market that is beginning to cool, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Due to wages failing to keep up with inflation and debt levels increasing, workers are increasingly taking part-time jobs and even second jobs in order to make ends meet, according to economists who spoke with the DCNF.

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House Dem Predicts Biden Will Intervene to Stop Strike Against Big Three Automakers

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

A House Democrat predicted Tuesday on an episode of Bloomberg’s podcast “Sound On” that President Joe Biden would intervene to avoid a major auto industry strike.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is currently in negotiations with the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — over employment contracts for unionized workers that are set to expire on Sept. 14. Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer told “Sound On” host Joe Mathieu that he believes that Biden will prevent a strike between the Big Three and UAW by intervening in negotiations, citing past interventions in union negotiations.

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