THE BIOTECHNOLOGY and pharmaceutical sector in the Boston area is about to hit some rough water. According to the Brussels-based consulting firm Vital Transformation, the prescription drug price controls in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will result in job losses of at least 500,000 nationwide over the next decade, about 30,000 of which will come […]
Economics
Posted inOpinion
All-electric homes are cheaper to build than fossil fuel residences
OUTSIDE THE STATE LEGISLATURE’S doors, our air was filled with wildfire smoke from Canada and extreme heat, while record flooding wiped out farms and livelihoods in western Massachusetts. Inside, lobbyists and special interests used a flawed academic report in an attempt to undermine Massachusetts’s climate goals, creating false headlines designed to push us back decades. […]
Posted inOpinion
Awash in revenue, Beacon Hill says no to gas tax relief
THE NEW YORK STATE Assembly last week introduced their annual budget which included a state gas tax suspension. The New York proposal pushes for a portion of the state’s gas tax for both unleaded and diesel fuels to be suspended from June 1 to December 31. New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed the gas […]
Posted inOpinion
Playing catchup on rare earth metals
THREE YEARS AGO, my partners and I founded Phoenix Tailings in a Cambridge backyard, creating a process to refine mining waste into rare earth metals. These are the 17 different elements that are found in almost every piece of modern technology, from smartphones to electric cars to fighter jets. Currently, their production creates a lot […]
Posted inOpinion
More workplace protections are needed
ON LABOR DAY, we celebrated working people, and the achievements of the union movement which make our families more secure and make our society and economy stronger. Among them: unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, and workplace safety regulations. The experience of the pandemic has underscored the vital role of all those protections, and shows we […]
Posted inEconomy
Reckoning coming as fed unemployment benefits ending
MORE THAN 300,000 Massachusetts residents will lose federal unemployment insurance benefits at the end of this week, and no one is sure what that will mean for them or the state. The federal government is pulling the plug on the benefits, which include an extra $300 a week, extra weeks, and a special program for […]
Posted inThe Download
Mass Reboot: Home
The coronavirus pandemic has often served as a magnifying glass, accentuating and amplifying existing trends in our society. With housing, for example, COVID-19 showed us what we already suspected – that poor people and people of color are most vulnerable to displacement from their homes in tough economic times, that access to housing is one […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass Reboot: Home
THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has often served as a magnifying glass, accentuating and amplifying existing trends in our society. With housing, for example, COVID-19 showed us what we already suspected – that poor people and people of color are most vulnerable to displacement from their homes in tough economic times, that access to housing is one […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. economy roars back in 1st quarter
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS ECONOMY grew at a much faster pace than the national economy in the first quarter and the economic analysts at MassBenchmarks see that trend continuing over the coming months. Real gross domestic product in Massachusetts increased at an 11.3 percent annualized growth rate in the first quarter, compared to […]
Posted inOpinion
Spilka backs ‘moonshot’ to address caregiving crisis
What follows is an excerpt of Senate President Karen Spilka’s speech on Tuesday to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. I have been particularly struck by the statistics on the devastating effects COVID-19 has had on women in the workplace. Before the pandemic, women in Massachusetts were participating in the workforce at increasing rates, surpassing […]