Category Archives: Economy

Mainers are paying less for energy and way more for health care

Mainers continued to pay less for gasoline and other energy last year as spending on health care continued to climb, according to the latest federal figures. The sudden drop in gasoline and energy spending by Maine households follows the global drop in oil prices and is in line with the rest of the country, where spending in that category dropped by about 24 […]

Women and minority owners are more common at Maine’s newest businesses

Social and cultural changes are making an impact on new business starts in Maine, with female- and minority-owned businesses showing up in greater numbers. But while minority business ownership is on par with Maine’s relatively small non-white population, the share of female business owners remains about half of the state’s 51.1 percent female population. The figures come from a new U.S. Census Bureau […]

Magazines like to rank Maine’s economy. Put their lists dead last this election season.

As we enter election season, political parties will again ready their claims about what’s up and what’s down in the economy and why that should cause voters to fill in Bubble A or Bubble B (or, in certain markets, Bubble C). Those, of course, are arguments dressed as descriptions, based on a whole bunch of funky assumptions. On Monday, the magazine Governing ranked […]

Here’s another sign of Maine’s slow economic recovery

For purchasing power, Maine state government hasn’t yet returned to the halcyon days of early 2007. Neither have many areas of the state’s economy, according to various measures of tax revenue. Researchers with the Pew Charitable Trusts found Maine was one of 21 states where tax revenue continued to lag the most recent peak, which it hit in 2007, adjusting for inflation. […]