Why Is It So Hard for Americans to Get a Decent Raise?slate.com - By Jordan Weissmann A new answer could change how we think about unions, monopolies, and the minimum wage. If you were a delivery van driver searching for a new job any …
Treasury Yields Resume AscentThe Wall Street Journal. - Min ZengGovernment-bond yields surged to their highest level since Jan. 3, as the inflation trade that took off in the days after Donald Trump’s election regained intensity. The yield on the 10-year Treasury settled
The December Jobs Report in Seven ChartsThe Wall Street Journal - Kate DavidsonThe U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in December, the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7% and wages grew at the strongest pace since 2009. Here’s a closer look at how that compares. Job growth
Want to Rev Up the Economy? Don’t Worry About the Trade DeficitThe New York Times - By N. GREGORY MANKIWThe economic policy of President-elect Donald J. Trump is still a work in progress. But if campaign rhetoric is a reliable guide, reorienting trade policy may become one of the main goals of the new administration.
How Economists Would Wage the War on DrugsThe Wall Street Journal. - Tom WainwrightThe monstrous cartels that run the narcotics business face the same dilemmas as ordinary firms—and have the same weaknesses In April, the world’s governments will meet in New York for a special assembly
The hidden economic rules behind Tinder, marriage, kidneys, and college admissionsQuartz - Matt PhillipsStanford University’s Alvin Roth is a very rare thing: An economist who saves lives. The co-recipient of the 2012 economics Nobel got his prize, in part, for helping to fix a long-standing problem with
Puzzles Greg Ip: Three Economic Puzzles Are Now Less PuzzlingThe Wall Street Journal - Greg IpAfter a perplexing start to the year, the economy is starting to make sense. That’s good news for workers and the Federal Reserve, but bad news for investors who are going to have to get used to some moves
OPEC Global Oil Demand Rising, IEA SaysThe Wall Street Journal. - Summer SaidGrowing demand may not be enough to catch up with increasing supplies Low oil prices and economic growth have helped drive up consumer demand for energy across the world in 2015, the International Energy
Beijing China Struggles to Shake Up Salt MonopolyThe Wall Street Journal. - Dinny McMahonTitans of table salt and other industries resist Beijing’s reform measures JINZHOU, China—Han Tianpei and his wife dozed in their truck one early morning, waiting for a denim factory to open to deliver
Tennessee Fed study: Tennessee has most regressive tax systemtimesfreepress.com States that boost income inequality the most: 1. Tennessee, offsets 32.7 percent of the progressiveness of the federal tax code 2. Mississippi, offsets …
U.S. Treasury How Much Should a Currency Be Worth? No One Really KnowsThe Wall Street Journal. - Ian TalleyAs debate over Pacific trade deal intensifies, U.S. lawmakers find themselves entangled in calculus that even IMF and WTO haven’t been able to pin down Legislation that targets currency manipulation might
Senate Finance Committee Senate Democrats vote to block Obama on tradeThe Washington Post - Mike DeBonis and Steven MufsonPresident Obama collided with his own party Tuesday when Senate Democrats stalled consideration of a trade measure that would give the administration greater authority to negotiate more freely with other
Interest Rates Chicago Fed Says Natural Jobless Rate At Or Under 5%, Will Fall Further Over TimeThe Wall Street Journal - Michael S. DerbyEconomists at the Chicago Fed argue in a new paper the U.S. economy remains even farther from a truly hot labor market than many central bankers think. The economy’s so-called natural unemployment rate
Inflation Russia’s Beloved Borscht Reveals Reality of InflationThe Wall Street Journal. - Paul SonneRetired Siberian journalist tracks ingredients to document the country’s soaring food prices MOSCOW—Every other month, retired teacher Natalya Atuchina cooks up a special pot of borscht in her home city
Debt Piles Up in Asia, Threatening GrowthThe Wall Street Journal. - Tom WrightCountries borrowed a lot during the crisis, and kept doing so afterward SEOUL—Asian countries borrowed heavily to maintain growth during the financial crisis, but couldn’t break the habit even as the economy
Mortgages Tumbling Interest Rates in Europe Leave Some Banks Owing Money on Loans to BorrowersThe Wall Street Journal. - Patricia KowsmannSubzero rates have put some lenders in an inconceivable position Tumbling interest rates in Europe have put some banks in an inconceivable position: owing money on loans to borrowers. At least one Spanish
The Real Reason Californians Can't Water Their LawnsBloomberg - Charles Kenny In response to the ongoing drought, California Governor Jerry Brown has set limits on urban water use—ordering cuts of as much as 25 percent. Cities …
Ben Bernanke Ben Bernanke: The Fed Is ‘Groping’ to Find the Full Employment RateThe Wall Street Journal - Kate Davidson Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he doesn’t know where the so-called full-employment level is now, saying the Fed “is in some sense groping” to determine it.
