Hidden within the unserious politics of the minimum-wage debate lies an important discussion of why many workers have not seen their wages grow over the past generation. It simply takes some digging.
As the president noted, no one should doubt that raising a family while earning minimum wage is a hard business; perhaps that is why almost nobody does it.
The stock market highs over the past few months have many folks confused.
Sometimes the worst part of the economic forecasting I do is the sinking feeling that my predictions will be right.
The United States has always had something like a middle class, but for most of our history it has been a distinction not necessarily dependent on income or wealth.
We appear to be headed for a government shutdown as our leaders in Washington, D.C., find themselves at an impasse on the largest question facing the nation: how to cut spending.
The Great Recession wasn’t caused by a housing market collapse; it was more than that. Our economic unwinding required lots of failures.
It was clear the poison pill of the fiscal cliff required too much courage for our “leaders” in Washington. So, we will have what, at first blush, appears to be the worst possible compromise.
No matter your politics, you must admit that Mitch Daniels has been the most consequential Hoosier governor in more than a lifetime.
The vintage and durability of classic Christmas songs carry an important economic lesson for our times.
This is the season of economic forecasts, for which there are many uses beyond their pure entertainment value.
Our republic can—and probably should—run a debt. As a great nation, we build and do things that endure, and these should be paid for, in part, by successive generations.
The popular media lately has been full of astonishing piffle with regard to taxation—so much so that a reasonably smart listener might suppose there was some magnificent disagreement among economists, like there is among lawyers in a court case. That is not the case.
It would be surprising if we could not today identify a good many folks who rely on government largesse in lieu of hard work.
Reaching an agreement on our budget deficit requires one or both sides to concede central parts of their arguments.
The potential for widespread municipal bankruptcies and the effective bankruptcy of as many as a dozen states will present historic difficulties for the nation, and much will depend on effective leadership from the president.
Just days before a presidential election, there’s no doubt we will be bombarded with poll results and election models designed to predict winners and losers. It is useful to explain how these work without technical jargon.
The economy in 2013 is likely to mirror the slow-growing one of this year, economists from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business predicted Thursday morning. And it could be even worse.
The facts by themselves offer no cause or understanding of the issue, much less an explanation of potential policy interventions.
The proximal causes of poverty—dropping out of school (one in five kids) and single parenthood (two in five kids)—are best described as failures of families.
