QUOTE OF THE DAY
IBD: Obama’s Illinois: Food Stamp Growth Exceeds New Jobs
A new study by the Illinois Policy Institute shows in the past four years, the number of new food-stamp recipients in the state has outpaced new jobs nearly 2-to-1.
Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, locked in a tight re-election battle with self-made billionaire Republican Bruce Rauner, has been arguing that Illinois, arguably the bluest of blue states, has turned the fiscal corner and is on its way back.
The recovery may be slower than Quinn wants it to be — but, he says, it is real.
WSJ: Saving the Vanishing American Worker
A decent job for every worker is a key indicator of a well-functioning economy, and it should be a prime focus of economic policy. Academics and policy makers are debating how far away we are from attaining this goal, and the outcome of this debate will have momentous consequences for millions of Americans.
First, a few definitions, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The “labor force” is the number of Americans age 16 and over who are either working or unemployed. (To be unemployed, you must be available for work and actively seeking it, unless you are waiting for your previous employer to recall you.) The “civilian non-institutional population” is the number of Americans age 16 and over who are not currently on active duty in the armed forces and who are not confined to institutions such as prisons, youth detention facilities, nursing homes or mental hospitals. The labor force participation rate is the labor force divided by the civilian non-institutional population.
At the onset of the Great Recession in December 2007, the labor force participation rate stood at 66%, compared with 62.8% last month. That 3.2-point difference may not sound like a lot, but it represents about eight million Americans. If the share of adult Americans working or looking for work—instead of simply dropping out of the economy—were as high today as it was in 2007, the unemployment rate would be nearly twice as high as August’s reported 6.1%.
Chicago Tribune: Tinley Park invests another $57,000 in eatery at ‘Taj Mahal’ Metra station
Less than two years ago, Tinley Park’s leaders unveiled a $12 million train station that Metra’s then-chairman called “the Taj Mahal” of the transit system.
The elaborate project included a $600,000 investment from the village in a privately run restaurant space to boost the station’s profile.
Since then the restaurant has been slow to generate revenue, records obtained by the Tribune show. But the village is bolstering its investment as trustees voted this month to spend an additional $57,000 at the restaurant on a pizza oven and to install new dishwashing equipment.
Bloomberg: County Fairs Wither as Hamstrung Illinois Lessens Financial Aid
The grandstands sat empty on what should have been the Macon County Fair’s opening night. Instead of a stage with pageant contestants in sparkling gowns, the centralIllinois arena held only 20 truck loads of dirt spread out for a makeshift go-kart track.
The 158-year-old fair is broke.
Organizers canceled the event in favor of a scaled-down festival this year as the board struggled to pay about $300,000 of debt. The fair’s demise in the county about 180 miles (290 kilometers) south of Chicagoshows the vulnerability of a pastoral institution. The number of U.S. farms has dropped six straight years, and with them demand for entertainments that convened growers who spend much of the year in their fields.
Chicago Sun Times: Gov’t should renegotiate FBI building lease
Once upon a time, the federal government leased a brand-new made-to-order building for the FBI in Chicago.
Right there, that should make us nervous. Does anybody feel confident the feds cut a good deal? Especially in Chicago, where good government goes to die?
And 11 years later, sure enough, we can conclude the following about that deal:
Daily Herald: Hoffman Estates officials counting on Sears staying
Hoffman Estates government and business leaders said they’re confident about Sears Holdings Corp.’s continued presence in the community, despite news the company needed a $400 million short-term loan from CEO Edward Lampert.
“I think I’m pleased that Lampert is loaning them money,” Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod said.
McLeod noted that the 15-year agreement Sears signed in 2012 to keep its headquarters in Hoffman Estates means the company would forfeit a significant amount of money if it were to abandon the village before the deal expires.
U.S. News: Obamacare Data Mismatch Could Leave Thousands Uninsured
Failure to submit the proper paperwork to the U.S. health care agency could result in nearly 500,000 people losing health insurance or the tax breaks that help pay for it.
These issues are some of the most recent hiccups with sign-ups for health insurance that threaten to push Obamacare back into the spotlight as voters head to the polls in November. Meanwhile, the government’s health care agency is letting consumers know that it is trying to recoup both correct information and taxpayer dollars in carrying out the details of the health law.
This week officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that is tasked with implementing the Affordable Care Act, are notifying consumers who have the wrong information on file about their income. The agency also will notify people who have not submitted documentation showing proof of legal citizenship or immigration status that they have passed the Sept. 5 deadline and will lose their health insurance coverage by the end of the month.
Reuters: U.S. Congress could link inversion plan, tax breaks: lawmaker
The U.S. Senate’s top Democratic tax-writer said on Tuesday he is considering linking legislation to curb foreign corporate buyout deals known as inversions with separate efforts to renew expired tax breaks that businesses want extended.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who leads the tax-writingFinance Committee, said several lawmakers told him they want to pair inversion legislation with the so-called tax extenders package to be dealt with when lawmakers return to Washington after the November midterm elections.
In an inversion, a U.S. business buys a foreign company, then moves its tax domicile to the foreign entity’s home country.
WSJ: ObamaCare and American Resurgence
The reports of Darrell Issa’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are a clinic on how government is really run. The latest on ObamaCare is no exception.
We see Chet Burrell, head of Maryland insurer CareFirst, emailing in alarm last April to White House aide Valerie Jarrett. The administration had just publicly stated its “risk corridor” plan would be revenue neutral—i.e., no extra taxpayer dollars would be available to cover insurer losses.
We see Mr. Burrell warning that sticking with this plan would mean politically “an unwelcome surprise,” namely premium hikes of 20% or more later this year as ObamaCare policies come up for renewal.
Chicago Tribune: Global index: 1871 ranks No. 9 among university-associated incubators
Chicago’s 1871 tech incubator ranks ninth in the world and fourth in the U.S. among university-associated business incubators, according to UBI Index, a Sweden-based organization that analyzes and benchmarks business incubators.
1871, based at Merchandise Mart, follows U.S. incubators in Youngstown, Ohio (ranked No. 1 globally), Columbus, Ohio (No. 3 globally), and Los Angeles (No. 6 globally) in UBI Index’s global top 10 of university-associated business incubators for this year.
Incubators in this category work closely with universities but have no formal affiliation with any university, UBI Index says. The organization lists 1871’s associated universities as Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois and DePaul University.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
