The hidden cost of income inequality
Today’s NYT features a commentary by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz that makes a compelling argument related to his newest book The Price of Inequality. The argument runs like this: The…
Breaking: Attorney General of PA won’t defend marriage prohibition
From the NYT’s News Desk: Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Kathleen Kane, said on Thursday that she would not defend the state against a lawsuit to overturn a ban on same-sex marriage.…
Update: Senate reaches compromise on federal student loan interest rates
Senate negotiators reached a tentative deal this morning to address the student loan interest rate crisis. There now appears to be sufficient bipartisan support to pass legislation similar to a…
Discord on the Fed over stimulus signals lack of direction for recovery
Recent public disclosures of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s board meetings indicate a growing rift between proponents of a gradual withdrawal of the Fed’s stimulus policy of “quantitative easing”…
Congressional politics stands in the way of looming student loan crisis
The coming student loan debt crisis has been widely discussed but it remains low on the list of problems facing Congress and the priorities of the American people. In fact,…
Despite improving jobs report, unemployment remains the same
The Labor Department is reporting that the economy added 200,000 jobs in June, beating the expectations of analysts by about 35,000 jobs. The effective rate of unemployment remained the same…
Supreme Court strikes down DOMA, rules against Prop 8 defenders
In a landmark but mixed decision the US Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited federal recognition of gay and lesbian couples.…
MOOA’s needed to reign costs of bloated college administrations
Benjamin Ginsberg, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, has recently proposed an innovative idea for college’s and universities to save money during this austere budget climate. Following the…
Debating the Economics of Decline
Thomas Edsall, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and author of The Age of Austerity, has an interesting discussion in the New York Times “Opinionator” section today in which…
Mergers return but is it real growth?
Despite weak economic growth and dim forecasts for more robust growth in the future, large corporations are taking advantage of weak sales and declining profits to make big on mergers…