Business Coverage

In its April 2018 Monthly Treasury Statement, the federal government reported that it ran an all-time single-month record $214 billion surplus, primarily because it took in a record $510 billion in receipts. The Associated Press's Josh Boak ignored the collections record, even though the AP noted the previous record when it occurred in 2015. Instead, Boak presented a different and far smaller out…

On Wednesday, the California Energy Commission adopted "standards requiring solar systems for new homes" beginning in 2020. Kathleen Ronayne at the Associated Press published a virtual press release celebrating the move, and presented woefully incomplete information about the alleged financial benefits of this unelected body's latest move.

Media outlets been hyping the recent increase in retail gas prices to nearly $3 per gallon, and primarily pinning the blame on President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear "deal." In 2012, when the price approached $4, CNN told readers that they "aren't as bad as you think," and that they weren't "a big drag on the economy" — and besides, according to the New York Times, "Gas prices are out…

Wednesday, CNN presented yet another story about Venezuela's implosion which did a fine job of portraying that country's human misery, this time in the oil industry. Unfortunately, it was yet another example of a story failing to mention its socialist form of government or even its leader, President Nicolas Maduro. Though such omissions have long been routine in establishment press reports, …

You had to figure that a left-leaning journalist somewhere would denigrate Friday's news that the nation's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell below 4 percent for the first time since 2000. Jordan Weissmann, in a Slate.com column beginning with a headlined contention that "The Unemployment Rate Is Meaningless," came through.

The saga of the environmental crusade against Chevron over pollution in Ecuador will be coming to San Francisco theater this month. Filmmaker and investigative journalist Phelim McAleer co-wrote the play The 18-Billion Prize, with Jonathan Lear. Broadway World described as a “shocking and at times farcical tale of how an environmental lawsuit turned into the world's biggest fraud.”

Now that the matter of presidential removal has been covered, ABC’s Designated Survivor can go back to what it’s best at: promoting the liberal agenda. When it’s not overtly defending liberal values, the show usually spends time demeaning political opponents, and this week’s story is probably the dumbest attack I’ve seen this season. Forget ISIS or even Antifa, the real threat to our nation’s…

At Slate.com on Friday, Felix Salmon called the Ford Motor Company "heartless" for its plans to phase out most of its car models, because "The losers, of course, will be the workers." Saturday, Ford responded that no jobs will be lost at its Chicago Assembly plant in converting it to light truck production. Salmon posted that response at the end of his column, but in three days he and Slate haven…

Looking at the grief Starbucks has received for problems with two patrons at a Philadelphia store, one might ask why current Executive Chairman and former CEO Howard Schultz didn't buy some media protection by purchasing a major newspaper. Fellow Seattle-area resident and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did that with the Washington Post in 2013. Amazon's alleged engagement in 21st-century sweatshop…

Shot: Anti-booze groups held a conference on influencing government policy. Chaser: Two government agencies were involved with the event.

The Guardian bolstered the proliferation of lawsuits against governments and companies over climate change by portraying them as incredibly significant. The left-wing British newspaper asked in all seriousness on March 20, “Can Climate Litigation Save the World?”

The Associated Press's Paul Wiseman has apparently tired of good economic news. Saturday, the AP reporter painted a frightening picture of what a trade war based on President Donald Trump's planned tariffs on a tiny sliver of U.S. imports might do to the world's economy, mischaracterizing a prominent economist's position to build his case.

CNN last updated a presentation tracking job growth since President Donald Trump's inauguration on January 5, the day the government issued its December jobs report. This halt coincided with the January effective date of the GOP-Trump tax-cut law and wide expectations of significant job growth because of that legislation, and is more evidence — as if we needed any — that the network which is…

Friday, California's High-Speed Rail Authority published its draft 2018 Business Plan. Its 800-mile bullet-train project's estimated cost is now $77.3 billion, up from $64 billion two years ago, and its final completion has been pushed out another four years to 2033. The current estimate is now more than 70 percent above the $45 billion presented to voters in 2008. The related Associated Press …