Peter's Blog

U.S. private employers added just 38,000 jobs in August 2026, according to the ADP National Employment Report released this week, the slowest pace of hiring since January. The report, compiled from aggregated and anonymized payroll data covering more than 26 million U.S. employees in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, showed weakness spreading beneath […]

In 1800, only 5% of the American population lived in cities, yet by 2020 that proportion had flipped dramatically and now only 20% live outside of them. This is not a result of mere preference or expediency, but rather a long process of natural momentum accelerated by regulatory overreach. Vast increases in agricultural productivity and […]

U.S. private-sector hiring slipped into negative territory last month, according to the November ADP National Employment Report released December 3rd. Payrolls fell by 32,000 positions—an abrupt reversal that economists say underscores gathering economic headwinds and a wary consumer. Small businesses were the hardest hit, shedding 120,000 jobs, while the spot price of gold briefly punched […]

U.S. private employers unexpectedly cut 32,000 jobs in September, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report released Tuesday, marking the first aggregate decline since early 2024. Goods makers shed 3,000 positions and service industries bled another 28,000, with layoffs concentrated in leisure and hospitality (-19,000) and professional and business services (-13,000). The dismal headline […]

Hiring hit the brakes in June, with the ADP National Employment Report showing U.S. private-sector payrolls shrinking by 33,000 positions—the first monthly contraction of 2025. Goods makers managed to eke out modest gains, but service industries bled jobs, and small businesses took the biggest hit. Wages, meanwhile, kept climbing faster than the official inflation gauges, […]

Everyone knows that discrimination is wrong. Of course, everyone in that circumstance would be assuming that discrimination was referring to judging people by their underlying traits, but it becomes very easy for the meaning of the word to take on a negative connotation that can be used to inform policy in unhelpful ways. Price discrimination […]

While the upcoming election has people discussing policy, and economic policy in particular, we rarely ask the question of whether we need economic policy in general. I’m being facetious here, however, the reach of economic policy that we employ and are attempting to enact in the future must be questioned. Rather than questioning any specific […]

The debate over the income gap in the U.S. is hotly contested. However, most proclaimed “solutions” entirely miss the root of the issue.

Politicians parrot on about small businesses being the backbone of the economy, only to pass the regulations that stifle them. In 2024, several federal agencies instituted new regulations on small businesses. These agencies included the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the IRS, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The new restrictions add to an exponentially increasing mountain of […]

In another sign of a struggling economy, small businesses are having an increasingly hard time paying rent. According to Alignable’s November Rent Poll, 41% of US small businesses reported they couldn’t pay their rent in full and on time in November. That was a 4 percentage-point increase from the previous month.