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Report fails to offer hope to jobseekers

Americans struggling to make ends meet probably don’t care to know how many billionaires there are in the United States, where most of them reside or how much the size of the “billionaires club” has increased since 2020. Struggling Americans today do want to know the prospects for more and better jobs and their prospects for markedly improving their lives. Unfortunately, it appears that for the “struggling crowd” more disappointment and frustration awaits them, as well as deteriorating confidence in general. It is not what people in this country have been anticipating ...

Audit refusal should not have occurred

It’s good that the troubling development regarding an audit of the Pinecroft Volunteer Fire Company apparently has been put to rest. The stated and voted-upon refusal that was at the center of the issue never should have occurred. Abiding by a promise made years ago should have precluded what occurred. From the get-go, there was nothing wrong with that promise. Back when the Pinecroft fire service promised to have its books audited every five years, the fire company was trying to recover from a theft involving company funds. Fortunately, the crime was uncovered without having ...

Consumer confidence needs a boost

The Wall Street Journal reported in its Sept. 3 edition that the gap in confidence between high-earners and low-earners “is now the widest it has been in the seven years of tracking the data.” The newspaper said that, for this nation’s middle class, this summer has been one of cooling confidence, with consumer sentiment dropping nearly 6% in August. If that “confidence dive” continues, 2025’s end-of-year holidays could prove dismal for retailers, not only somewhere else but here in the Southern Alleghenies region as well. Black Friday, already a skeleton of its former ...

Internet often not source of good info

It is not uncommon to be suspicious about much of what is posted on the internet. That’s not new, of course. It’s as old as the internet itself. However, when the internet was new, most people gave scant thought to the misinformation and evils that could embrace it and be hidden within it. It was something new, something fun, something exciting, something intriguing — and people increasingly were captivated by it and its myriad possibilities. Over the years, however, attitudes and perceptions changed, the one big change being that people have, as noted in this editorial’s ...

Politicizing Federal Reserve hurts economy

It’s not hard to find mistakes in the Federal Reserve’s recent history, but Donald Trump’s latest attempt to erode the institution’s independence is dangerous. The president wants lower interest rates, but any benefits coming from that would probably be outweighed by supercharged inflation and the economic hangover that comes with it. Last week, Trump announced that he would try to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, whose term otherwise expires in 2038. He cited an unproven allegation of mortgage fraud that one of his appointees dug up and broadcast on social media, but Cook denies ...

Significance of Labor Day remembered

As this year’s Labor Day observance approaches, America’s workers, traditionally part of the “cement” that holds this country together, are concerned increasingly about what effects robots and Artificial Intelligence will have on their work lives – and lives in general – going forward. And, that worry is destined to continue, although “people in the know” remain certain that humans’ important places in businesses and industries will continue – albeit, in many cases, in different capacities. For now, though, Jorgen Pedersen, CEO of the Advanced Robotics for ...