By Darren R. Jones | September 5, 2026 Washington got the jobs report it wanted Thursday. New York, New Jersey, and Washington's own business corridors should be bracing, not celebrating. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers added 162,000 jobs in August — more than five times the meager 31,000-a-month pace the economy had been limping along at for the prior year. Unemployment held at 4.1 percent. June and July payrolls got revised up by a combined 55,000 jobs. On paper, it's...

By Darren R. Jones | September 2, 2026 Congress spent Tuesday patting itself on the back for not blowing up the government. Washington's business community should save its applause — the disaster it just avoided is nothing next to the one already underway. The House passed a stopgap spending bill 370-48 on Tuesday, extending federal funding through December 11 and pushing the fight over next year's budget safely past the midterm elections. The Senate cleared it in July, 90-6. President Trump...

By Darren R. Jones | September 2, 2026 Zohran Mamdani promised New York a tax the ultra-rich couldn't dodge. Six months into the rollout, the city can't even collect it from the people who admit they owe it. The pied-à-terre tax — a surcharge on second homes worth $5 million or more, sold to voters as the price of admission for owning a part-time Manhattan trophy apartment — has now had its exemption filing deadline pushed twice. First from a summer date to September 18. Now, again, to...