AUGUSTA — Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are asking a fast-food chain to use Maine-grown potatoes for their french fries in two locations in the state. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud have written to the owners of Five Guys hamburger franchises in New England and urged them to use […]
economy
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Big disconnect as ‘fiscal cliff’ clock ticks
WASHINGTON — Republicans’ newfound willingness to consider tax increases to avert the “fiscal cliff” comes with a significant caveat: larger cuts than Democrats seem willing to consider to benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the president’s health care overhaul. The disconnect on benefit programs, coupled with an impasse between Republicans and the White House over […]
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Posted inBusiness
Portland dominates Maine’s economy
The economic shift to Maine’s south has become so pronounced during the last decade that the greater Portland region now generates more than half the state’s economic output and one-third of its jobs, as the economies of other Maine cities have been relatively flat and rural regions decline. While conceding Portland’s geographic advantage, economists say […]
Posted inOpinion, sj-web
National budget plan must inspire confidence
In one way, the so-called fiscal cliff threatening the U.S. economy is less dangerous than widely supposed. In another, it’s more. First, as many have said, the cliff is really a slope. At year’s end, the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 automatically expire, and a deliberately brainless process of sequestration starts to cut […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Bernanke warns Congress: Find deal, avoid ‘fiscal cliff’
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday urged Congress and the Obama administration to strike a budget deal to avert tax increases and spending cuts that could trigger a recession next year. Without a deal, the measures known as the “fiscal cliff” will take effect in January. Bernanke also said Congress must raise […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Five economic trends to be thankful for
There is a dirty little secret about economics writing. The thing that offers the surest path to glory to front page play for a story, to lots of Web traffic, to a pat on the back from editors is doom and gloom. When we can point out something that is awful, whether it is a […]
Posted inLetters
T. Pelletier: Tax cuts for not-so-small business
President Obama has been re-elected, at least in part because of his support for small business. Of course, Gov. Romney also claimed to be a champion of small business, and yet the two candidates offered very different economic plans. How do we explain the discrepancy? A lot of it depends on what a politician means […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Obama powers to re-election despite weak economy
WASHINGTON (AP) — His lease renewed in trying economic times, President Barack Obama claimed a second term from an incredibly divided electorate and immediately braced for daunting challenges and progress that comes only in fits and starts. “We have fought our way back and we know in our hearts that for the United States of […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Exit polls find hint of economic optimism
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made sharply different bets about who would vote this year. It turned out that Americans who cast ballots looked collectively much more like what Obama had envisioned — a diverse tapestry that reflected a changing America — than the whiter, older electorate Romney had banked on. Younger voters and minorities came […]
Posted inMaine
Maine ranked second-worst state for making a living
LEWISTON — For the second year in a row, Maine is ranked second-worst, after Hawaii, in the country for making a living, according to the finance website MoneyRates.com. Maine also ranked eighth among the 10 worst states in which to retire, according to MoneyRates. The rankings, combined with a Gallup poll released in August […]