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Ballooning federal debt is straining private economy in US

The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond has climbed back to where it stood in 2007, north of 5%, and it pushed a little higher again last week after the Federal Reserve left its own rates alone. On its face, that sounds almost reassuring, a return to some pre-crisis normal. It is nothing of the sort. The same number today carries a very different, and far heavier, meaning than it did 19 years ago. In 2007, the federal debt held by the public was roughly $9 trillion. Today it is about four times that. A yield is simply the price of borrowing, and paying the 2007 price on four times the ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Warren artist Aaron Chine for painting a colossal 100-foot-long, brightly colored musky fish on a retaining wall near the city’s Summit Street bridge. The supersized public art is certain to be a head turner for the approximately 9,000 motorists who pass by it each day. More importantly the giant-sized fish stands as a fitting metaphor for the giant-sized progress that continues to be made in revitalizing the Mahoning River and the city of Warren. Kudos, too, must generously go out to the leading sponsors of the project. In addition to the city, the Fund for Warren’s ...

Congress must act to protect consumers from data center risks

The massive proliferation of data centers in our state and nation has fast rocketed to become the undisputed hot potato issue of 2026. To argue otherwise flies in the face of in-your-face realities. In the United States, nearly 4,000 data centers have opened in recent years with an additional 1,500 sites proposed or under construction. In Ohio, artificial intelligence and cloud computing demand have fueled construction of about 200 such centers, the fifth-highest number of any state in the nation. But as they grow, so, too, does fierce and sometimes caustic pushback in communities ...

Bring back ‘nattering nabobs’

President Trump’s performance at last Friday’s retooled White House Correspondents’ Dinner made me nostalgic for the days of Vice President Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon’s media attack dog. In a speech, Agnew called politicians critical of Nixon administration policies “nattering nabobs of negativism,” a phrase written by his speechwriter William Safire, and later usurped by media to apply to journalists. That was mild compared to the disgusting personal insults Trump hurled at journalists who were at the dinner to support the White House Correspondents ...

Democratic Socialists are shockingly racist

The Democratic Socialists of America use people of color as fashion accessories. Sure, they put black or brown faces on ballots, and they talk a big game about racism. But black and brown voters are not choosing their candidates. The DSA national membership chooses, and it is 85% white. Look at the crowds. In October 2019, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders staged a rally at the Queensbridge housing project, across from Manhattan. Its residents are 47% black, 34% Latino and 10% Asian. News photos showed a nearly unbroken sea of white enthusiasts. The head of the ...

‘Charitable giving’ isn’t what you think

I want to start today with a warning about "charitable giving" and end with a primer on wealth inequality. The two are closely related, as I'll explain. We're on the cusp of the biggest gusher of "charitable giving" in history. Beware. We tend to think of "charitable giving" as unambiguously good because we equate "charities" with organizations that help the poor and equate "giving" with generosity. But both assumptions are wrong. In fact, the "giving" is actually a giant tax loophole that provides the super-rich a means of dramatically cutting their tax bills while quietly funding ...