Virginia firms handled more defense contracts than any other state except California in the most recent fiscal year. The $37.4 billion performed in Virginia during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2018, makes up 4.6% of the state’s gross domestic product compared with 1.7% in the nation. These Department...
If Virginia is going to sell its soul, we should at least get the market price. The Virginia Racing Commission is starting to publish monthly reports on the cash flow to Colonial Downs and to the government under the new state-granted monopoly to operate gambling dens. Any relationship to horse...
What will you do with your $110? Thanks to the conformity revenue flood, it’s coming …
... Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, in its latest analysis of Virginia’s economic development incentives, reports that efforts to capture and nurture microchip manufacturing with grants and tax breaks led to some early success that failed to hold, and the industry here is in decline. The reason may be...
Editor’s note: Coleman Hughes, a columnist at the online magazine Quillette, delivered the following testimony at a United States House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Bill H.R. 40 on June 21, 2019. If passed, the bill would establish a commission for reparations. While his testimony is not specific to Virginia, this...
The worst fears of Amazon critics are coming true. Housing prices are becoming increasingly unaffordable — even before Amazon sets up shop at its HQ2 facility in Arlington and floods the region with 25,000 employees. The average home price in Arlington County jumped 7% in the past year to $713,000,...
Next month will mark the longest U.S. economic expansion on record. But growing signs of a slowing economy — and potentially a recession — have some businesses concerned about the future. Increased uncertainty is never a good thing for businesses. If they don’t know the future demand for their products...
It’s hard to dissect a battle while the smoke is still clearing, but the June 11 Virginia primaries demonstrated again the state’s continued and steady move away from its conservative past. It was not a Great Leap Forward for the progressive elements of the Democratic party, but where they didn’t...
Exclusionary regulation at the local level is the root cause of unaffordable housing, and a rollback of exclusionary regulation is the best long-term solution, argue Salim Furth and Emily Hamilton, research fellows at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. “Contemporary American land use law embodies the bad idea that private land ought...
International trade is now a regular topic of conversation across the Commonwealth and the U.S. Last year, Virginia manufacturers exported $15.11 billion in goods. In particular, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will accomplish what many thought impossible nearly a year ago – freer markets and fairer trade. Now, Congress has to do its...
