Beaconomics
Small business survival in a big-box universe
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Vittorio Menswear & Tuxedo’s sideline—shipping and receiving UPS packages—illustrates the creativity locally owned shops must have to hold their own against national competitors.
Beaconomics
AIM aid needs an overhaul
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We would think that the state’s Aid and Incentives for Municipalities should be driven by a formula based on community need? If that’s the case, the formula seems to work poorly.
Beaconomics
N.Y. employment keeps pace in 2018
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Several of New York State’s smaller metros did quite well in 2018, outperforming the state’s leading large metros.
Beaconomics
Should Rochester fear the ‘inverted yield curve’?
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Neither a falling interest rate yield curve nor an inversion is destiny. Still, just like the rest of the economy, Rochester needs to pay attention to national indicators.
Beaconomics
Opioid-related deaths soar in Monroe County
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Upstate rates of opioid deaths far exceed the rates experienced in New York City’s largest boroughs. The growth in the rate of deaths due to opioid overdoses is terrifying.
Beaconomics
How do we measure poverty?
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The official poverty threshold is equal to three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for family size. Is it an adequate measure?
Beaconomics
Making sense of the graduation rate
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Darrell Huff’s “How to Lie with Statistics” was an instant classic following its publication in 1954. Do widely quoted figures on K-12 education tell the whole story?
Beaconomics
Industrial recruitment poker
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Though Amazon says publicly that the Long Island City site for “HQ2½”—half of Amazon’s proposed second headquarters—was not determined by state incentives, would Long Island City have won its bid without them?
Beaconomics
Halfway to single payer?
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The Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson began a sea change in health care finance. The public health insurance share has risen from 5 percent in 1965 to 41 percent today.
Beaconomics
Upstate’s anemic recovery
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The unemployment rate in the Rochester metro fell to 4 percent in September, half the rate at the peak of the recession in 2009, and below pre-recession levels. Is this good news?