The Buffalo Chronicle
Commerce
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Proposed wealth taxes come with a wealth of worrisome potential trade-offs
BY JAMES PETHOKOUKIS President Biden’s campaign tax plan was full of tax increases, some $3 trillion worth. But a wealth tax wasn’t one of them. And, according to The New York Times, a wealth tax…
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Postal Service’s performance declined last year
BY KEVIN R. KOSAR Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hauled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy before it and spent the better part of five and a half hours denouncing him. In…
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FCC’s emergency broadband benefit attracts praise, criticism
BY DANIEL LYONS Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a report and order establishing the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB), a $3.2 billion program to help low-income families stay connected…
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Romney floats ‘child allowance’ in reform of child tax credit
BY KYLE POMERLEAU Last month, Senator Mitt Romney introduced a proposal to enact a “child allowance,” a monthly payment to households with children. His proposal would be financed in part by repealing other child…
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Higgins presses for restaurant relief in next COVID package
Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) is pushing for federal grants for restaurants to be included in the first COVID emergency relief package approved by Congress under the new Biden Administration. In a letter to…
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Gillibrand urges New Yorkers to apply for COVID rent relief ahead of February 1st deadline
New Yorkers Struggling to Pay Rent Due to Lost Income Caused by COVID-19 Are Eligible for One-Time Subsidies U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is urging New Yorkers to apply for rental relief through…
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Syracuse Mayor sees opportunity for I-81 project under Transportation Secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg
After seeing comments in social media by Department of Transportation Secretary Nominee Pete Buttigieg, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh reached out this week to the former mayor of South Bend, In., about the…
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December’s jobs report and where we go from here
BY BRENT ORELL Last week, the Department of Labor released the final employment report of the Trump administration, and the news there, much like all the news these days, was not good. For…
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New York had largest 2019-20 population decline of any State
BY E.J. McMAHON New York could be on the way to its first population decline in any decade since the 1970s, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Empire State’s…
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Complications emerge over paid leave and childcare during the pandemic
BY ANGELA RACHIDI Congress responded to the arrival of the pandemic on US soil in spring 2020 by passing sweeping economic relief measures, including policies directed toward supporting the needs of families.…
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Housing market is overheated and prices are unsustainable, says housing report
BY EDWARD PINTO AND TOBIAS PETER Key takeaways: Purchase rate lock volume remains strongly above last year’s. For the last couple weeks, volume has consistently been about 30%-80% higher. Driven by ultra-low…
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How federal housing policies hurt borrowers of color
BY TOBIAS PETER The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a distressing fact in the housing world: Federal home loan policies that promote risky lending in the name of providing “responsible, affordable mortgage credit…
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With employment lagging, Cuomo may postpone scheduled minimum wage hike
BY E.J. McMAHON Still struggling to recover from spring pandemic shutdowns, now facing the threat of renewed restrictions due to a second wave of COVID infections, the last thing New York’s economy needs is…
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Mayor Brown is working to co-locate Greyhound at new Amtrak station
Sources close to Mayor Byron Brown tell The Chronicle that he is working to relocate the Greyhound Bus Station on North Division Street and to co-locate it at the City’s new Amtrak Station, which…
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Huawei ban disrupts supply chain for telecom components
BY BRONWYN HOWELL Since the US and other governments have effectively banned the use of Chinese (read Huawei, but also ZTE) equipment from future mobile communications networks, support for open radio access network (O-RAN)…
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The safety net in the aftermath of the pandemic
BY ANGELA RACHIDI The American Enterprise Institute commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to field a survey of 3,518 working-age adults in late July 2020 to learn more about the employment situation of…
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The $540,000 camera in your pocket
BY BRETT SWANSON Every couple years, we update our original 2014 blog post that asked the question, “What would an iPhone have cost in 1991?” The purpose is to measure — at…
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Biden may use Defense Production Act in $6.3 trillion solar roof plan prescribed by Green New Deal
Progressive activists have been insisting that the presumptive President-elect Joe Biden commits to using the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of solar roofing systems and to publicly guarantee that every…
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Bloomberg, Warren jockey to be named Treasury Secretary
The presumptive President-elect Joe Biden has already fielded phone calls from both former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Each politician made themselves available to serve as Treasury Secretary in the…
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Unemployment rate keeps falling faster than projected
BY MATT WEIDINGER According to today’s jobs report from the US Department of Labor, the US unemployment rate in October fell to 6.9 percent, down from 7.9 percent in September. As the…
