An Urban's Rural View

In the view of this blog's author, who's leaving Washington, D.C., in favor of Washington state, there's more to the capital than political dysfunction.

The labor market is tight, in part because of the pandemic, but mostly because long-term demographic trends are squeezing the labor pool.

What the striking auto workers are demanding makes perfect sense from their point of view, but they risk pricing themselves out of their jobs.

Here are some reasons not to get too worked up about ag trade's swing into negative territory.

Inflation has come down, but it's not clear the Federal Reserve's interest-rate increases are responsible.

Between the torrid climate and the after-effects of the pandemic, restaurants are being forced to adjust.

The economic news from China is bad and some analysts think China's problems are practically unfixable.

Congress takes a lot of recesses, but the better reason to be critical of some Congressmen is their lack of seriousness.

In addition to food and fellowship, the nation's 8,600 farmers markets help bridge the urban-rural divide.

A boom in construction of new factories indicates Washington's latest industrial-policy forays are working -- so far.

Despite agreements between beef producers and Brazilian prosecutors, tropical-forest clearcutting is on the rise.

Whether you call it de-risking or decoupling, the U.S. is likely to go further in disentangling from China than its allies. How far anyone will go is unclear.

That the Federal Reserve didn't raise interest rates at its June meeting is good news, but it could be well into next year before the Fed starts lowering them.

The debt-ceiling deal shows compromise is still possible in polarized Washington. It does little to address the nation's fiscal challenges.

The Biden administration tries to dissuade South Korean advocates of developing nuclear weapons with a promise to consult.

The COVID-19 emergency is officially over. But elevated death tolls and the political controversies and social and economic changes the pandemic wrought aren't going away.

The Supreme Court's decision upholding California's Proposition 12 will require pork producers to either spend millions to comply or get Congress to overturn it. The precedent will extend beyond pork.

The Economist publishes a well-researched cover story arguing that the U.S. economy is leaving its peers further in the dust.

The Transcaucasian country Georgia is known for its wine and for its fraught relationship with Russia.

Advocates of "arm Taiwan, not Ukraine" present a false choice. Defending Ukraine is critical to deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan.