While I knew wealth is concentrated in America, I had no idea how highly concentrated it is. For example, I'd incorrectly assumed that the bottom 120 million of us had at least a couple percent of the wealth that exists. I was wrong.

A second source claims that, in 1983, the "bottom 40%" had about three times as great a share of national wealth ( Read more... )

From two entities that both cater to the financial industry, in chronological order. First from Bloomberg, October 7, 2010:

Man Who Had No Mortgage Faced Foreclosure Anyway ( Read more... )

For your enjoyment.

I'll let http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/10/can-i-please-go-back-to-my-home-timeline-now.html answer that:

If you had told me four years ago that come October 2010 I would be forecasting that highly-efficient American steel companies would be operating at only 70% of normal capacity in 2011, that the U.S. Treasury would be able to borrow for 30 ( Read more... )

This election cycle, there's a lot of talk from the Republicans about class warfare. This is just a friendly reminder who's been winning that war for the last 30 years.


( Read more... )

Every American citizen, who is resident of the 50 States, has three Congresscritters he or she voted for/against: two Senators, and a member of the House. (Those who reside in a Territory, or are outside the country altogether, are in different statuses. When I was military and stationed overseas, I voted in the district I resided in, when I ( Read more... )

It looks like the United States Government will be turning a profit on the TARP bailout. This is the best news since the Treasury announced they thought they'd not need the last $550 billion (78% of the money Congress approved).

One of the current Republican talking points, is the claim that what's holding the economy back is business uncertainty about taxes and/or regulation. When they began making that claim, they pointed to a survey of small business owners put out by the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Based on what's being said on campaign, you'd think ( Read more... )

Recently, a number of center-right folks have been praising Germany's response to the recession. They make Germany sound as if it has recovered completely. This is a bit puzzling to me, because the right's economic concerns are usually limited to GDP (and income for the wealthiest few, which is usually indistinguishable from GDP), and reducing the ( Read more... )

In an analysis of a Wall Street Journal editorial by Harvard economics professor Robert Barro, that basically blames unemployment insurance for unemployment, I read:

The dramatic expansion of unemployment-insurance eligibility to 99 weeks is almost surely the culprit.

That last little nugget, that extended benefits are "almost surely" the culprit ( Read more... )