close

Hits and Misses

4 min read
article image -

We’ve heard a lot about crime this campaign season, and it remains a perennial issue. Overall crime rates are, in fact, higher in the United States than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, but still well below rates in the 1980s and 1990s. A recent article on The Conversation website revealed some good news about crime that has not received much attention – the number of bank robberies has been declining across the country. Right now, such robberies are the lowest they have been in a half-century. Jay L. Zagorsky, a clinical associate professor at Boston University, theorizes a move to a cashless economy could be part of the reason bank robberies have dropped, along with the fact that there are fewer banks to rob and that crooks have moved on to cybercrimes and other types of offenses. We all need to be vigilant against scammers of all varieties in today’s world, but at least tellers and other bank personnel can breathe a little easier.

When Britain’s Conservative Party won a landslide majority in the House of Commons almost three years ago, most prognosticators forecast it would take at least a decade for the opposition Labour Party to creep back to a point where it could potentially claim a majority of seats again in the House of Commons. But, in an indication of how quickly the political pendulum can swing on both sides of the Atlantic, Labour would likely win an election running away if it were held today due to grave missteps by Liz Truss, Britain’s freshly installed prime minister. She put forward an economic plan that would have sliced taxes on the highest earners in a misguided belief that the results would trickle down to less well-off Britons, as well as a menu of other tax cuts. The results immediately spooked financial markets, caused the pound to plummet, and led to jitters about skyrocketing interest rates. Sold as a way to stop runaway inflation and jump-start economic growth, most economists said the proposals put forward by Truss would do neither. Diane Coyle, professor of public policy at University of Cambridge, told The New York Times, “It’s quite a bold hypothesis to say the reason that our productivity performance is so dismal compared to other countries is that we just haven’t gone low enough in terms of tax and regulation. There’s no evidence that it’s going to work.”

When Pennsylvania voters head to the polls in a month, they will not be voting on any amendments to Pennsylvania’s constitution. But they could have their work cut out for them in 2023. The news site Spotlight PA pointed out last week voters could be confronted next year with at least six questions about changing the commonwealth’s charter, ranging from how the lieutenant governor is chosen, ID requirements for voters and abortion rights. Republicans have been using constitutional amendments to get around the veto pen of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, but it would be preferable if many of these decisions were hashed out among lawmakers instead. It also would be better if the Legislature followed a proposal put forward by state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, along with state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, R-Erie, that would require two-thirds of members in both houses of the General Assembly to approve putting constitutional amendments on the ballot, rather than the current simple majority. As Snyder and Bizzarro pointed out in an op-ed earlier this year, “If their ideas are worth changing the state constitution, it should be done with an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the Legislature.”

Most financial advisers will tell you that, if you can, it’s best to have some money stashed away for emergencies, whether it’s for an urgent home repair, an unexpected vehicle expense, or something along those lines. Most states have a Rainy Day Fund, but those are not used for emergencies as we commonly think of them, but to plug budget holes or maintain spending levels when revenues decline. This week, the Wolf administration announced that Pennsylvania now has $5 billion in its Rainy Day Fund, a record amount. The administration pointed out that when Gov. Tom Wolf took office in 2015, there was only $231,800 in the account, which would have funded the state’s operations for only a couple of minutes. If the economy falters in the next couple of years, the money in the Rainy Day Fund will definitely come in handy.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today