Last week the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released provisional birth data for 2020.(1) Most of the media coverage focused on the fact that the number of births (3.6 million) was the lowest since 1979, and the general fertility…
On Thursday, the Department of Commerce released its preliminary estimate of U.S. gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2021. Real GDP grew 1.6 percent over the previous quarter (2020 Q4), fueled by federal stimulus payments and an aggressive…
After a one-week delay, on April 9th, the Biden administration finally released a peek at their FY 2022 budget. In it, the president proposes to spend $1.5 trillion on base (regular) discretionary programs next fiscal year, an increase of $118…
Last week, I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. It got me thinking about where we were at this time last year and where things are heading now. At this time last year, COVID-19 cases were sharply rising.…